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Tel AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel has dramatically expanded its footprint in the Gaza Strip since relaunching its war against Hamas last month. It now controls more than 50% of the territory and is squeezing Palestinians into shrinking wedges of land.

The largest contiguous area the army controls is around the Gaza border, where the military has razed infrastructure to the point of uninhabitability, according to Israeli soldiers and rights groups. This military buffer zone has doubled in size in recent weeks.


Israel has depicted its tightening grip as a temporary necessity to pressure Hamas into releasing the remaining hostages taken during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that started the war. But the land Israel holds, which includes a corridor that divides the territory’s north from south, could be used for wielding long-term control, human rights groups and Gaza experts say.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last week that even after Hamas is defeated, Israel will keep security control in Gaza and push Palestinians to leave.

The demolition close to the Israeli border and the systematic expansion of the buffer zone has been going on since the war began 18 months ago, five Israeli soldiers told The Associated Press.

“They destroyed everything they could, they shot everything that looks functioning … (the Palestinians) will have nothing to come back, they will not come back, never,” a soldier deployed with a tank squad guarding the demolition teams said. He and four other soldiers spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

A report documenting the accounts of soldiers who were in the buffer zone was released Monday by Breaking The Silence, an anti-occupation veterans group. A handful of soldiers — including some who also spoke to AP — described watching the army turn the zone into a vast wasteland.

“Through widespread, deliberate destruction, the military laid the groundwork for future Israeli control of the area,” said the group.

Asked about the soldiers’ accounts, the Israeli army said it is acting to protect its country and especially to improve security in southern communities devastated by the Oct. 7 attack, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage. The army said it does not seek to harm civilians in Gaza, and that it abides by international law.

Carving Gaza into sections
In the early days of the war, Israeli troops forced Palestinians from communities near the border and destroyed the land to create a buffer zone more than a kilometer (0.62 miles) deep, according to Breaking The Silence.

Its troops also seized a swath of land across Gaza known as the Netzarim Corridor that isolated the north, including Gaza City, from the rest of the narrow, coastal strip, home to more than 2 million people.

When Israel resumed the war last month, it doubled the size of the buffer zone, pushing it as far as 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) into Gaza in some places, according to a map issued by the military.

The buffer zone and the Netzarim Corridor make up at least 50% of the strip, said Yaakov Garb, a professor of environmental studies at Ben Gurion University, who has been examining Israeli-Palestinian land use patterns for decades.

Last week, Netanyahu said Israel intends to create another corridor that slices across southern Gaza, cutting off the city of Rafah from the rest of the territory. Israel’s control of Gaza is even greater taking into account areas where it recently ordered civilians to evacuate ahead of planned attacks.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians used to live in the land that now makes up Israel’s buffer zone, an area that was key to Gaza’s agricultural output.

Satellite images show once-dense neighborhoods turned to rubble, as well as nearly a dozen new Israeli army outposts since the ceasefire ended.

When the ceasefire was announced in January, Nidal Alzaanin went back to his home in Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza. His property stood on the edge of the buffer zone and lay in ruins.

All that remains is a photo of him and his wife on their wedding day, a drawing of his son’s face on a porcelain plate and the carcass of a 150-year-old sycamore tree planted by his great-grandfather. His greenhouse was reduced to twisted scraps of metal.

The 55-year-old farmer pitched a tent in the rubble, hoping to rebuild his life. But when Israel resumed its campaign and seized his land, he was again uprooted.

“It took 20 years to build a house and within five minutes they destroyed all my dreams and my children’s dreams,” he said from Gaza City, where he now shelters.

Israel’s bombardment and ground offensives throughout the war have left vast swaths of Gaza’s cities and towns destroyed. But the razing of property inside the buffer zone has been more methodical and extensive, soldiers said.

The five soldiers who spoke to the AP said Israeli troops were ordered to destroy farmland, irrigation pipes, crops and trees as well as thousands of buildings, including residential and public structures, so that terrorists had nowhere to hide.

Several soldiers said their units demolished more buildings than they could count, including large industrial complexes. A soda factory was leveled, leaving shards of glass and solar panels strewn on the ground.

Soldier alleges buffer zone was a ‘kill’ zone
The soldiers said the buffer zone had no marked boundaries, but that Palestinians who entered were shot at.

The soldier with the tank squad said an armored bulldozer flattened land creating a “kill zone” and that anyone who came within 500 meters of the tanks would be shot, including women and children.

The army said its attacks are based on intelligence and that it avoids “as much as possible, harm to non-combatants.”

Long-term hold?
It is unclear how long Israel intends to hold the buffer zone and other territory inside Gaza.

In announcing the new corridor across southern Gaza, Netanyahu said Israel aims to pressure Hamas to release the remaining 59 hostages, of whom 35 are believed dead. He also said the war can only end when Hamas is destroyed and its leaders leave Gaza, at which point Israel would take control of security in the territory.

Then, Netanyahu said, Israel would implement U.S. President Donald Trump’s call to move Palestinians from Gaza, what Israel calls “voluntary emigration.”

Some Israel analysts say the purpose of the buffer zone isn’t to occupy Gaza, but to secure it until Hamas is dismantled. “This is something that any sane country will do with regard to its borders when the state borders a hostile entity,” said Kobi Michael, a senior researcher at two Israeli think tanks, the Institute for National Security Studies and the Misgav Institute.

But rights groups say forcibly displacing people is a potential war crime and a crime against humanity. Within Gaza’s buffer zones, specifically, it amounts to “ethnic cleansing,” because it was clear people would never be allowed to return, said Nadia Hardman, a researcher at Human Rights Watch.

Israel called the accusations baseless and said it evacuates civilians from combat areas to protect them

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Source;
https://www.mystateline.com/news/international/ap-israel-controls-50-of-gaza-as-palestinians-get-squeezed-into-shrinking-wedges-of-land/

Let it be known historically that the so called Palestinians and their Hamas friends brought this total destruction on themselves when they carried out the October 7 massacre.

For those cheering them. Was the attack really worth it? Because as it seem, likely none of this would have happened if Hamas didn't commit the massacre. There are signs that Gaza will go back to the control of Israel. Consequences of Islamic terrorism.
Am yisrael chai🇮🇱!

Israel has turned Gaza into a concentration camp and is now committing genocide.

VnAhunnaPl:
Israel has turned Gaza into a concentration camp and is now committing genocide.

Haha. Wow, fantastic. A concentration camp with a growing Muslim population or a genocide where Muslims somehow still manage to breathe? 🤣🤣

Seriously, was the October 7 massacre really worth it?

Very good.

Israel is a terrorist state.

The world should stop pretending and call them what they are.

Salewa97:
Israel is a terrorist state.

The world should stop pretending and call them what they are.

Hamas is a terrorist group.
The world should stop pretending and call them what they are.

Go cry elsewhere. Lol

BY NOW ISRAEL SHOULD BE CONTROLLING MORE THAN 80% OF GAZA.
ISRAEL SHOULD PLEASE GET THE JOB DONE FAST AND WIPE OUT EVIL HAMAS FROM GAZA.

At this point, i think the pea sized brain leaders of Hamas are not as sophisticated as they think. I refuse to think they planned the Israeli incursion without Israel finding out.
I think Israel found out and let them go ahead so as to seize Gaza. A plan that had little or almost nothing left to stop it from fruition.


Anyways I’m still in support of Israel over those terrorists. They need to know there place

#MyOpinion

Israel : The antidote of Muslim Terrorists!

Israel the give me joy

>this is the current state of Rafah

>it's a pity Hamas brought this upon their people

After all this wahala and all these Lives have been wasted... where does this end?

Even if there are only two people on earth, there will still be a fight, a war.

Beautiful

Ok

Blame Iran
Blame Hamas
They played right into the game plan
Next time, no fight battle wey pass you at all levels....!!!!!!!!!!
Choose your battles carefully.

See levels

🥺

That's the real conspiracy behind it all.

Ok

Had Hamas known...

:+'

Better safe than sorry.

Never give terrorists any chance. They are not human beings

On the mandate of the Israeli Government we stand!!!

This is totally ridiculous... ; i thought isreal is fighting hamas ,never knew grabbing land and running away with it like a trophy 🏆 is part of the deal....this reminds me of a certain power grabber who grabbed power and ran away with it without knowing what to do with it except state of emergency and harsh economic policies...

Where are the people that gave the Hamas mind to invade Israel to kill and kidnapped. This is how they loss their land to Israel

Kk

F A F O

Terrorists
Land grabbers
Infidels