Israel plans to turn Gaza’s Rafah into buffer zone: Israeli media

JERUSALEM / ISTANBUL

Israel is planning to incorporate Rafah city in southern Gaza into a buffer zone being built along the border, Israeli media said on Wednesday.

Haaretz daily said the army is creating a buffer zone in Gaza that covers 75 square kilometers (29 square miles), or around one-fifth of the Palestinian territory.

“It would effectively turn Gaza into an enclave within Israeli-controlled territory, cutting it off from the Egyptian border.”

This area, located between the Philadelphi Corridor to the south and the Morag route to the north, was home to around 200,000 Palestinians before the Israeli war in October 2023.

“In recent weeks, however, it has been left almost entirely deserted following widespread destruction caused by the Israeli military,” Haaretz said.

The Israeli daily said the inclusion of Rafah into the buffer zone would allow Israel to seize large areas of Gaza.

“In some respects, it appears the army is seeking to replicate in the south the methods it employed in northern Gaza,” it added.

As part of its preparations, the Israeli army is working to expand the Morag route, which separates Rafah and Khan Younis in southern Gaza, demolishing structures along its path.

Haaretz said the new Israeli move is part of its efforts to pile pressure on the Palestinian resistance group Hamas.

There was no immediate confirmation from the Israeli army of the plans to include Rafah in the buffer zone.

The Israeli army renewed a deadly assault on Gaza on March 18 and has since killed nearly 1,500 victims, injured 3,700 others, and shattered a ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement in the enclave that was signed in January.

Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to escalate attacks on Gaza as efforts are underway to implement US President Donald Trump's plan to displace Palestinians from the enclave.

More than 50,800 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in a brutal Israeli onslaught since October 2023, most of them women and children.

The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants last November for Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.