During nearly 7 months of war, the Israeli army has reshaped the Gaza Strip according to its needs, and while the future of governance in the Strip is debated within the Israeli government, the armed forces have systematically destroyed, at least one kilometer wide, all buildings along the border, and are constructing A military corridor isolates Gaza City.
With this summary, the French newspaper Le Monde opened a journalistic investigation supported by illustrative charts, at the beginning of which it explained that Israel is demolishing buildings in the “security zone” adjacent to its borders with the Gaza Strip, permanently depriving Gaza of 16% of its agricultural land, after it forced hundreds of thousands of residents to leave the northern Gaza Strip and took control of a road that prevents their return, and at the same time limits the passage of humanitarian aid.
Temporary or permanent structures?
The army – as the newspaper says – launches raids from two forward bases established on this corridor, and is building new structures on the coast, which are supposed to ensure the delivery of aid by sea, as promised by the American ally.
But one Western diplomat fears that while Israel presents these structures as temporary, they represent a fait accompli that could last for a long time.
The Israeli right – according to Le Monde’s investigation – aims to make the destroyed Gaza City a depopulated buffer zone in the north, or to reoccupy it.
Note that all components of the ruling coalition in Israel demand “leaving freedom of action” to the army in the long term there, and they agree that the “stabilization” phase must continue for many years after the war, which requires regular raids on the Islamic Resistance Movement “Hamas” and the rest of the brigades. Armed forces in Gaza.
isolating area
Le Monde explains that Israel systematically destroyed buildings on a one-kilometre-wide strip of land along the Gaza border, extending through agricultural land that before the war produced about 20% of the Strip’s food needs.
At some points, this area exceeds a kilometer, as in the destroyed village of Khuza’a.
Right-wing political leaders in Israel have spoken of the need to punish Gaza by cutting off part of its territory.
As for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he said, “The security zone that was established in the Gaza Strip, on the perimeter of Israel’s borders, will remain in place as long as the need for security requires it.” The French newspaper commented that this massive destruction of civilian property could constitute a war crime, and in the long term Long land grab.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, estimated last February that “Israel did not provide clear reasons for such widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure,” and reminded “the authorities that the forced transfer of civilians constitutes a war crime.”
As for the United States, it recognized what it considered the security necessities of its ally, while emphasizing that they must remain temporary.
North Gaza
Le Monde added that the main strategic decision of the Israeli army in this war remains the forced displacement of the residents of the northern Gaza Strip, in order to dismantle the Hamas brigades and destroy part of its infrastructure, as he says.
However, about 300,000 Palestinians remain isolated and threatened with starvation, according to the United Nations, even though the Israeli army allowed – under international pressure – “private sector partners” to provide them with aid.
In this context, the centrist ministers in the Israeli war government are launching a campaign to establish a “local Palestinian entity” responsible for civil affairs, without explicitly referring to the Fatah movement or the Palestinian Authority led by Mahmoud Abbas, and they are trying to persuade Arab countries to supervise this local authority with Israel deploys forces in Gaza.
According to Le Monde, proposed Arab countries oppose this plan.
Division of Gaza
The “Netzarim Corridor” divides the Gaza Strip in the middle, and the French newspaper confirms that it is a military road that the army has expanded since mid-February, along the path of an old road that was designated for Jewish settlers from the Netzarim settlement, before the Israeli withdrawal in 2005. It is 7 kilometers long, and is It isolates Gaza City, preventing its residents from returning to it.
Satellite images show the continued construction of forward bases and checkpoints on coastal roads and in Salah al-Din in the center of the Gaza Strip. The army carried out raids from these bases, especially on Al-Shifa Hospital last March.
Satellite images taken at the beginning of March also show the new pier that the NGO World Central Kitchen built from the rubble of buildings. Six nautical miles away, US military ships are building a temporary “floating bridge,” which is scheduled to begin operating in the period before September.
Israel is establishing a military zone on the coast, which it claims is to “secure the unloading of international humanitarian aid transported by sea.”
Displaced people
Le Monde notes that the 6.5-square-kilometre sandbar where the Israeli Gush Katif settlements were located before the Israeli withdrawal in 2005, today hosts hundreds of thousands of displaced people, and Israel designated this site as a “safe zone” in early December 2023, and announced Expanded on April 28.
“Al-Mawasi” is a Palestinian coastal area located southwest of Gaza, famous for its agricultural lands and fresh groundwater. Due to the policies of the Israeli occupation, it was transformed from the “food basket of the Gaza Strip” into barren lands and a hotspot for displacement in the Strip.
More than a million displaced people are also gathering in tents around the city of Rafah in the south, where Israel announced a major ground attack to regain control of the “Philadelphia Corridor” on the border with Egypt, in order to combat weapons smuggling through tunnels, and to pursue Hamas brigades and its affiliated civil administration, according to an account. Israel.
Satellite images analyzed by Le Monde newspaper show that Israel began – in mid-February – to develop the military corridor that isolates Gaza City from the rest of the Strip, across the path of the settlers’ road from the Netzarim settlement, and two brigades are stationed there in two advanced locations, equipped with antennas, radars and capabilities. A surveillance system whose lights reach a far distance in the pitch black night due to the power outage.
The strengthening of these structures raises concerns that the army is “preparing to stay longer” in the area, says Judge Scott Anderson, deputy director of operations at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza.