While officials have floated the idea on numerous occasions, Tuesday's comments by the Israel Defense Forces were the first public confirmation that the strategy is underway.
“It is one of the additional efforts or layers of security that are being implemented after October 7,” said Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and IDF spokesman until earlier this month.
The United States explicitly opposes the creation of a buffer zone, saying there should be no permanent change in the Palestinian territories. Human rights groups say destroying civilian homes and farms could amount to war crimes.
The Israeli military said the soldiers killed on Monday near the southern city of Khan Yunis were part of a demolition crew that was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade, causing the explosives to explode and demolishing the two buildings above them.
Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari said that “troops were removing terrorist buildings and infrastructure” about 650 yards from the border fence, in order to “create security conditions for the return of residents of the south to their homes.”
Israeli Defense Forces Chief of Staff Herzi Halevy said the soldiers were killed “in the buffer zone between Israeli communities and Gaza.”
Before October 7, Israeli border guards imposed a 330-yard buffer zone around the 36-mile length of the fence, although Palestinians could farm in the area. Israeli officials now say that lax enforcement of the zone enabled Hamas to breach the border fence on October 7.
In the months leading up to the attack, Israeli border units reported seeing people approaching the barrier with maps, apparently studying it for weak points.
The army refused to provide further details about the buffer zone, including the depth of the area it plans to clear. The Israeli army said in a statement on Wednesday: “This is part of the inevitable measures necessary to implement a defense plan that will provide better security in southern Israel.”
Conricus said his understanding is that the zone would extend just over half a mile from the border — more than double the size of the pre-war buffer zone. He said: “In some areas it may be wider, and in some areas it may be a little less.”
There were a total of 2,850 buildings in the planned buffer zone, according to Israel's Channel 12, and the IDF has already destroyed nearly 1,100 buildings. The Israeli army refused to comment.
Israeli officials have been pressing for the creation of an expanded buffer zone since the beginning of the conflict – providing another military layer between the enclave and kibbutzim overrun by militants.
“At the end of this war, not only will Hamas still be present in Gaza, but the area of Gaza will also decrease,” then-Foreign Minister Eli Cohen told Israel Army Radio on October 18.
A few days later, Israeli Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter, a former intelligence chief, said the plan aimed to create a “fire zone” into which no Palestinians would be allowed to enter.
What videos and satellite images show
Video clips of what appear to be Israeli army forces carrying out controlled demolitions of buildings, some near the border, have circulated for months.
In a video posted online on December 12 and verified by The Washington Post, Israeli soldiers can be heard screaming and clapping as they bomb a school in northern Gaza.
The school, which the Israeli military said was used as a Hamas outpost, is located about a mile from the border fence. Satellite images dated January 20 show damage to the school and nearby buildings, especially to the north and east.
Satellite © Planet Labs, January 20
Satellite © Planet Labs, January 20
Other videos posted online in mid-January and verified by The Washington Post show the destruction of several residential buildings in Al-Sarij, an agricultural area in Khan Yunis, about one kilometer from the fence. In one video, a drone soars above rooftops, capturing the moment smoke and flames billow from about 10 buildings. In another video, about 11 buildings are demolished at once. Satellite images from Planet Labs show the buildings completely flattened.
Satellite © Planet Labs, January 19
Satellite © Planet Labs, January 19
The Israeli military did not respond to questions from The Washington Post about the videos or whether the demolitions were related to the buffer zone.
The United States has consistently said that the size of the Palestinian territories should not be reduced after the current conflict.
“So, if there is any proposed buffer zone inside Gaza, that would be a violation of that principle and something we oppose,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in December.
Israel has informed the United States that the buffer zone being built inside Gaza is only a temporary security space to eliminate Hamas firing positions near the border, according to a US official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss diplomatic communications.
Speaking during a visit to Nigeria on Tuesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States had been clear in “our opposition to the forced displacement of people,” but added that it was “appropriate” to take security measures so Israelis could return. To their homes in the south.
“If transitional arrangements are needed to enable that to happen, that's one thing,” he said. “But when it comes to the permanent status of Gaza, we remain clear about not encroaching on its territory.”
The Israeli army declined to comment on whether the buffer zone would be temporary.
Conricus said he expected its application to continue as long as there were armed groups present in Gaza. Israeli army officials said that the war against Hamas may continue for years.
Reaction from human rights defenders
Videos of IDF soldiers blowing up large swaths of buildings in Gaza were included in South Africa's recent claim to the International Court of Justice in The Hague that accused Israel of genocide.
“The scale of devastation in Gaza and the mass targeting of family homes and civilians… all demonstrate that genocidal intent is understood and being put into action,” South African lawyer Tembeka Ngcukaitobi said, referring to a video showing 50 buildings being destroyed. In the eastern Shujaiya region.
Israel denied what it said were “false and baseless” allegations by South Africa and defended the demolitions as necessary to dismantle Hamas' infrastructure.
“Civilian property is protected under international humanitarian law,” said Basil Sourani, advocacy officer at the Palestinian Center for Human Rights. “These houses are empty, and there is no one in them. Why do they not carry out these bombings except as part of their plan for forced displacement?”
Sourani said that the buffer zone established by Israel before the war included more than 40% of agricultural land in Gaza, which prevented farmers from reaching their fields for more than a decade. In 2006, an agreement brokered by the International Red Cross allowed the Palestinians to return to their lands.
“Now with this one-kilometre buffer zone they're talking about, and I'm sure it's more than that, what are we going to do?” Sourani asked. He added that his family's farm, which includes about 10,000 olive trees and is located about a mile and a half from the border, has already been bulldozed.
“And not a branch remained from the olive tree.”
Karen DeYoung and Garrett Lee contributed to this report.
