After failing to achieve its strategic goals from its war on Gaza, Israel seeks to create a buffer security zone at the expense of the Gaza Strip area

A report published by The Wall Street Journal yesterday, Sunday, stated that Israel seeks to establish a buffer zone 800 meters wide along the border with Gaza, destroying agricultural lands and demolishing hundreds of houses and schools for this purpose.

According to the newspaper, Palestinians will be prohibited from entering the area, which Israeli officials claim will allow Israelis to return to the settlements surrounding the Gaza Strip, which were evacuated after the Hamas attack on October 7, in which about 1,200 Israeli soldiers and civilians were killed.

It added that plans to establish the buffer zone began in the early days of the war and will allow Israeli forces to see and stop anyone approaching the border.

Before October 7, Israeli forces already maintained a buffer zone 350 meters wide and shot at Palestinians entering it to head towards the border fence. Only farmers were allowed to enter the area.

During the protests in 2018, known as the "Great March of Return," Israeli snipers killed 214 Palestinians near the border fence.

 It covers 16 percent of Gaza's land

Shaul Arieli, a former Israeli colonel, said that establishing a permanent buffer zone inside Gaza would be illegal under international law because Israel would be occupying land outside its recognized borders, according to the newspaper.

If the buffer zone is completed, Israel will effectively confiscate 16 percent of Gaza's land, according to Adi Ben Nun, a geography professor at the Hebrew University.

Israel has used bulldozers and systematically destroyed about 1,100 buildings in the area so far, representing more than 40 percent of the estimated number of buildings in the proposed area, Ben Nun says.

Israel is also constructing a 320-meter-wide road that will effectively split the Strip into two parts, dividing north from south. Israeli forces have demolished 150 buildings so far to build the road.

Ben Nun says Israeli forces will use the road for patrols in Gaza until the completion of Israeli military operations, which could take months or years.