Israel demolishing buildings in Gaza to create buffer zone

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has demolished 1,100 buildings in the border areas of the embattled Gaza Strip to create a buffer zone following US statements against making any changes in the enclave’s borders, The Financial Times (FT) writes, citing informed sources.

According to one of the newspaper’s sources, the goal of the operation is to "keep this area completely clean of any terrorists or infrastructure, rocket launchers, mortars· and to give us [the Israelis] the freedom of operation in that space," TASS reports.

Amos Yadlin, former Israeli military intelligence chief, told reporters earlier that he expected the buffer zone to be up to one kilometer wide. "This will be a buffer: no one will be there, only mines · ·to make sure October 7 never happens again," the FT quoted him as saying.

According to the newspaper, the IDF declined to confirm or deny these figures. However, IDF Spokesperson Richard Hecht pointed out that army units were "operating in the area in order to prevent Hamas activity threatening the citizens of Israel."

Israeli Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter, who was formerly head of Israel’s internal security service, said in October 2023 that, "no matter who you are, you will never be able to come close to the Israeli border."

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated on Wednesday that the US did not rule out the potential creation of temporary buffer zones on the border between Israel and Gaza to ensure the return of displaced Israeli nationals. However, he stressed that Washington opposed changes to the enclave’s borders.

Tensions in the Middle East flared up again on October 7, 2023, after militants from the radical Palestinian group Hamas launched a surprise incursion into Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip, killing residents of border communities and taking over 240 people hostage. Hamas described its attack as a response to the aggressive actions of Israeli authorities against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City. Israel announced a total blockade of the Gaza Strip and started carrying out strikes on targets in Gaza, as well as on certain areas in Lebanon and Syria. Clashes have also been reported in the West Bank.