Gaza Territory shrinks drastically while Israel grabs huge parts of land

Dubai – More than half of the Gaza Strip is no longer accessible to Palestinians, since the army of Israel takes over larger parts of the territory and absorbs them in what the security zones calls along all limits of the territory.

Nowhere is this more visible than in the south of Gaza, where the Minister of Defense of Israel says that the army sees an area once the home of a quarter of a million people and a buffer zone is changing. The move cuts the Palestinian border town of Rafah – and indeed the entire Gaza Strip – from neighboring Egypt.

Israel says that his war – of which Gaza Health officials say that has killed nearly 51,000 Palestinians – Hamas is under pressure to release the remaining hostages between the 251 who was taken in the deadly October 2023, attack. Those attacked by Hamas killed nearly 1200 people in Israel, according to the Israeli authorities.

The acquisition of South Gaza changes its limits and fundamentally changes its card, around the territory of Israel from all sides. Before the war, the southern border of Gaza with Egypt was the only intersection that was not only governed by Israel.

Rafah was also a hiding place during the first months of the war for more than a million Palestinians and served as A lifeline for help Comes from Egypt. It is also where some people could leave Gaza, including those who needed medical evacuation.

The army of Israel tightens his control over Gaza, especially in the south, after he said months ago that Hamas had been defeated there. The return to the war has caused criticism in Israel, also below Reservists do not want to report duty.

Israël’s takeover of South Gaza changes his card

During a visit to Rafah last week, Minister of Defense Israel Katz told soldiers that the entire southern swad would be converted into a buffer zone.

“The entire Rafah will be evacuated and there will be a security zone,” Katz said in comments confirmed to NPR by his office. “This is what we are doing now.”

The army of Israel says that in addition to conquering a kilometers of territory in the south, it also deepened and seizes its seizure of the territory along the northern border of Gaza.

In his last explanation, Posted Sunday on social mediaKatz said that if Hamas continues to refuse the conditions of Israel for a hostage, “Gaza is smaller and more isolated and more and more of the residents will be forced to evacuate from the Vechtzones.”

Israel says that weapons have been smuggled to Hamas for years in tunnels that ran to Gaza under the border from Egypt. Egypt says it destroyed those tunnels years ago.

Maps Published by the Israeli military tones a buffer zone in Rafah that forms a fifth of the territory of Gaza. The relocation of Israel of people from the South is one of the greatest territorial evacuation commitments that the army spent in 18 months of war.

The civil defense and paramedics of Gaza say that there are still 14 families in the city of Rafah, unable to flee.

Walid Al-Mughayer, a resident of Rafah, says that his family was fired in the city by Israeli troops on March 23, while trying to hear on the Israeli evacuation orders. He saw a child killed and five people injured by the Israeli gunfire that day.

“We had to return from the gunfire,” he says. “We had no fresh water or food for five days … We had to drink the liquid in tins of favabones.”

He says that a few days later the family came to the city of Khan Younis, but have no tents or something to sleep on.

Israeli newspaper Haaretz notes This vast zone that is carved in the south of Gaza includes an area that is approximately 29 square miles. The newspapers report that Israeli officials have not yet decided whether the entire area will be designated as a buffer zone that is forbidden for citizens, such as other parts of Gaza, or whether it will be completely on the ground with the entire city of Rafah.

NPR Documented in January The aftermath of the long-term invasion of the army of Rafah, after the withdrawal from the city during the temporary ceasefire, from mid-January to mid-March. Most buildings were damaged or destroyed, including the most important hospital.

A family is in a destroyed building in Rafah on January 25, 2025.

Anas Baba/NPR

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Anas Baba/NPR

Israel grabs more than half of Gaza’s territory

In addition to expanding his buffer zones, the army of Israel Gaza divides two courses. During most of the war, the North Gaza and Gaza City had isolated from the rest of the territory with the Netzarim -Gang.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently announced a second line, called the Morag Corridor, who cuts Rafah and South Gaza from the center of the territory and the large city of Khan Younis.

Yaakov Garb, professor of environmental studies at Ben Gurion University in Israel, has investigated the maps of the Israeli army of Gaza and says that about half of the territory has been explicitly defined as connections for Palestinians. He says that there are extra less explicit zones that Palestinians cannot come in, according to these cards.

In other words, Garb says, the army adds new buffer zones in Gaza to existing buffer zones made during the war, where “a systematic type of leveling” of buildings can be seen in aerial and satellite photos.

He says that the two military corridors that are cut by Gaza have created two enclaves, which amounts to about half of the territory of Gaza, where Palestinians can be.

“We have shifted to a regime in which you have very extensive areas that function more as large canals around shrinking enclaves of the remaining Gazan population,” says Garb.

A Report published last week Through an Israeli group called Breaking The Silence, who collects the testimonies of Israeli military veterans, buffer zones in Gaza describes Palestinian’s death zones “of huge proportions”. The report quotes “soldiers and officers who participated in creating the perimeter” who say that these border zones are not clearly marked or defined, “the life of a Palestinian who endangered this imaginary line.”

Buildings and agricultural land were destroyed by the army, causing buffer zones a wasteland, say aerial photos and soldiers in the report.

When asked for comments on the testimonies of the soldiers, the army replied that it acts in accordance with international law. It says that these buffer zones are “to prevent the enemy from carrying out attacking terrorist activities” against Israel.

The United Nations estimates that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are newly displaced since Israel gone back to war on March 18. Most live in improvised, thin tents, bombed schools or in damaged buildings. There has also been and besiege on Gaza For almost six weeks, with Israel who retains the entry of all goods, including food, medical supplies and fuel.

Since the chatting -the fires collapsed a month ago, the Gaza Minister of Health says that more than 1,600 Palestinians were killed in Israeli air strikes and attacks, most women and children.

Israel’s return to war months after he said that Hamas Brigades were defeated, sparks, different opinions

A few thousand current and former reservists, pilots, military doctors, intelligence officers and others in security have published open letters in the last few days and which was called for a change in the war and the immediate return of hostages. The letters accuse the extreme right-wing government of Israel of favoring its own limited political interests in relation to the security of the country. Tens of thousands of Israelis have also protested against the return to the war and say that it endangers the lives of the hostages in Gaza.

The first group of reservists in the Air Force whose letter encouraged others was rejected from serving. In a statement, Netanyahu described them as a ‘radical peripheral group’, which accuses them without proof of receiving foreign funds.

He said that the letters “were written by a small handful of weeds, managed by foreign funded organizations whose some goal is to overthrow the right -wing government.”

Israel estimates that 24 hostages are still living in Gaza. Most of the 251 hostages from Israel in the Hamas-guided attack have been released in negotiated fairs during temporary cease-fire. Hamas says it is willing to release all hostages when Israel agrees to permanently end the war. The government of Israel has refused and says that Hamas wants to be eliminated and disarmed.

Anas Baba reported from Gaza City.