Israel controls 50% of Gaza squeezing Palestinians into shrinking wedges of land - War on Gaza
Israel has dramatically expanded its footprint in Gaza since relaunching its war on the Strip 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 occupation army has razed Palestinian homes, farmland and 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, 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 their homeland.
The demolition close to the Israeli border and the systematic expansion of the buffer zone have 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 the 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.
This satellite photo from Planet Labs PBC shows the town of Khuzaa, east of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip in March, 2025. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)
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 occupation army.
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 the 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.
Neighborhoods turned into rubble
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians used to live in the land that now makes up an Israeli 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 war 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.
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 says 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.
Visibly shaken, he said many of the soldiers acted out of vengeance for the Oct. 7 attack.
'I came there because they kill us and now we're going to kill them. And I found out that we're not only killing them. We're killing them, we're killing their wives, their children, their cats, their dogs, and we destroyed their houses,' he said.
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.
Some Israeli analysts claim the purpose of the buffer zone isn't to occupy Gaza but to secure it until Hamas is dismantled.
But 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.
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