Israeli soldiers in operation in the Gaza Strip. (Photo distributed on July 25, 2024 by the Israeli army, via AFP)
“Israeli forces will not withdraw from Gaza before 2026.” This is what an officer from one of the brigades deployed in the Gaza Strip told Haaretz as part of an investigation into the ongoing consolidation of the Israeli army's military installations in several areas of the enclave.
“The work is progressing apace. What was, just a few months ago, a dirt embankment strewn with the rubble of destroyed buildings is today a very active construction site,” began the article published on Wednesday. “Wide roads are being built, cellular antennas are being installed, water, sewer and electricity networks are being put in place and, of course, there are the buildings, some portable and some not so portable.”
'Military enclaves'
These developments suggest that, after more than a year of ground offensive in the Palestinian enclave following Hamas's “al-Aqsa Flood” operation against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Israel seems determined to maintain its occupation over the long term, if not permanently, according to several military sources quoted by the left-wing Israeli media. “Given the situation on the ground, Israeli forces will not leave Gaza before 2026. When you see the roads that are paved here, it's clear that they are not intended for ground maneuvers or troop raids in various locations. These roads lead, among other things, to the places from which certain settlements have been withdrawn. I'm not aware of any intention to rebuild them, it's not something we're told explicitly. But everyone understands where this is going,” said the officer.
As soon as the war began, Israeli forces took control of areas and roads in the Gaza Strip. But data obtained by Haaretz shows that the current size and extent of the “military enclaves” being built on the ground “clearly show their intention to stay put.” Emptied of their inhabitants, the buildings in these residential neighborhoods are being methodically demolished to keep these areas as clear as possible in order to “minimize the threat of hiding places or booby traps.” “It's beginning to remind us of the days preceding Israel's disengagement from the Gaza Strip in 2005,” wrote Haaretz. It added, “The soldiers are living in well-equipped containers, with kosher kitchens and stable living conditions, a far cry from the temporary arrangements common in war zones.”
Satellite images collected by the media indicate that this reinforced occupation by the Israeli army is concentrated, from north to south, in four main areas: The entire northern part of the enclave (Jabalia, Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahiya), the Netzarim corridor (south of Gaza City), the Kissufim sector (between Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis), then the Philadelphia corridor, south of Rafah, near the Egyptian border. The article added that army units are working in parallel to establish a one-kilometer deep buffer zone along the entire length of the border, destroying any Palestinian dwellings in the process.
'Purged areas'
The article concluded that it's not just developments on the ground that suggest the army is preparing to stay put for the coming year. The same reading emerges from an examination of a kind of “combat chart for 2025” distributed in recent weeks to Israeli troops, Haaretz pointed out. Among other things, the document instructs them to “expose vast areas,” which, in less military jargon, means “destroying existing buildings and infrastructure so that dangers to soldiers cannot hide there, but no one can live there either,” explained the media outlet.
This trend is all the more visible in the North, which has been deprived of access to humanitarian aid since the beginning of October, and from which thousands of Palestinians have been forcibly displaced in recent weeks, forced to flee the deadly bombardments that have raised the human toll of the Israeli offensive to 43,712 dead and 103,258 wounded, according to the latest estimates from local authorities.
A few days before the publication of this investigation, the daily, which is highly critical of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's policies, accused the Israeli army, in an editorial entitled “Netanyahu's ethnic cleansing in Gaza exposed,” of carrying out a “premeditated” “ethnic cleansing operation in the northern Gaza Strip,” ordered by Chief of Staff Herzl Halevi and directed by Netanyahu, former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and his successor, Israel Katz. The article, quoting a senior Israeli army official, refers to “very clear orders” to “create a purged zone, a purified space” in this region where Israel would allow no food, water or medicine. The officer reportedly revealed to journalists that “there is no intention of allowing the inhabitants of the northern Gaza Strip to return to their homes.”
This article was translated from L'Orient-Le Jour.
