The Israeli military is preparing to bring the southern Gaza city of Rafah into its so-called “buffer zone” it has established along Gaza’s border with Israel, Haaretz reported on Wednesday.
In the buffer zone areas, the Israeli military has demolished virtually every building and destroyed agricultural land to make the area uninhabitable. The Haaretz report said that similar destruction could happen in Rafah, which has already been left in ruin due to Israeli attacks, but it hasn’t been decided yet.
The Haaretz report reads: “According to defense sources, it has yet to be decided whether the entire area will simply be designated a buffer zone that is off-limits to civilians – as has been done in other parts of the border area – or whether the area will be fully cleared and all buildings demolished, effectively wiping out the city of Rafah.”
The Israeli military has a policy in its buffer zone and other areas it has said are off limits to Palestinians of shooting anyone who approaches the area even if they’re unarmed. An IDF soldier who spoke to The Associated Press said if a person came within 500 meters of tanks deployed in the buffer zone, they would be shot, including women and children.
The Israeli military has ramped up its seizure of land in Gaza since restarting its genocidal war on March 18 and now controls more than 50% of the Palestinian territory, which includes the buffer zone around the border and the Netzarim Corridor, which separates northern Gaza from the rest of the Strip.
According to Haaretz, the Rafah Governorate by itself accounts for about one-fifth of Gaza’s territory. The IDF has been working to establish a corridor between Rafah and the city of Khan Younis, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dubbed the “Morag axis,” using the name of a Jewish settlement that was located in the area before the 2005 “disengagement.”
The Haaretz report said that turning Rafah into a buffer zone was meant to put pressure on Hamas, but it also aligns with Netanyahu’s long-term goal of a full Israeli military occupation of Gaza and the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian population.
