According to the Israeli army, buildings are being demolished at a depth of 650 meters inside the Strip with the aim of “creating security conditions for the return of the residents of the south to their homes.” The 21 Israeli soldiers who were killed on Monday were booby-trapping these buildings in preparation for their demolition and bulldozing.

The Israeli army is working to establish a "buffer zone" inside the Gaza Strip, through which it is destroying thousands of buildings along the fence surrounding the Strip. The Israeli army blows up these buildings and flattens them. Last Monday, Israeli forces booby-trapped a number of these buildings in preparation for their destruction, but the forces were targeted by an anti-armor shell fired by a Hamas fighter, which led to the mines exploding, the buildings collapsing, and the killing of 21 Israeli soldiers.

Following the killing of these soldiers, Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari, in the first public confirmation of the establishment of a “buffer zone,” said that “the forces were removing terrorist buildings and infrastructure” about 650 meters from the border fence, claiming that establishing the zone The buffer aims to "create security conditions for the return of the residents of the south to their homes."

While the buffer zone, before October 7, extended over an area of 330 meters along the 36-mile separation fence, and Palestinians could farm in it, the Washington Post today, Thursday, quoted Israeli sources as saying that the new zone increases More than double this area.

The newspaper quoted a former spokesman for the occupation army, Jonathan Conricus, as saying that his understanding is that the area will extend a little more than 800 meters from the border, that is, more than double the size of the buffer zone before the war. He added, "In some areas it may be wider, and in some areas it may be a little less."

Israeli Channel 12 reported that there are 2,850 buildings in this area, and that the Israeli army has destroyed 1,100 of them so far.

The newspaper referred to clips published by the Israeli army and images taken by satellite, showing the destruction of dozens of homes, residential complexes, and schools and their leveling to the ground in the eastern regions of the besieged Strip from both the north and south.

Despite the United States' opposition to the "buffer zone" plan, the occupation army went ahead with it. US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in December, “If there is any proposed buffer zone inside Gaza, it will be a violation of the principle of preserving the territory of the Strip, which we oppose.”

US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, also said that the United States was clear in “our opposition to the forced displacement of people,” and that “it is appropriate to take security measures so that Israelis can return to their homes in the south. But when it comes to the permanent status of Gaza, we remain clear regarding non-encroachment on its lands.

The newspaper quoted an American official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, as saying that the Israeli government informed the United States that the buffer zone being built inside Gaza is only a temporary security place to eliminate Hamas firing positions near the border.

But former Israeli spokesman Conricus told the newspaper that he expected the buffer zone to continue to be implemented as long as there were armed groups present in Gaza.

The newspaper also quoted the advocacy official at the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, Basil Sourani, as saying 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 them to return to their lands.

He added, "Now with this one-kilometer-deep buffer zone that they're talking about, and I'm sure it's wider than that, what are we going to do?", noting that his family's farm, which includes about 10,000 olive trees and is located about 2.4 kilometers from the border, It had already been razed, "not a single olive branch left in it."