Under the title: “How is Israel reshaping the Gaza Strip?”, the French newspaper Le Monde said, in a lengthy investigation, that while the future of governance in the Palestinian Gaza Strip is being discussed within the Israeli government, Israeli forces systematically destroyed, at least one kilometer wide, Buildings along the border, and creating a military corridor isolating Gaza City.

During about seven months of war, the Israeli army has reshaped Gaza according to its needs. It is demolishing buildings in the “security zone” that is about one kilometer deep on its border, threatening to permanently deprive the narrow coastal strip of 16% of its territory, especially land. Agriculture, according to satellite data that Le Monde says it analyzed. Israel forced hundreds of thousands of Gazans to leave the northern Strip, and reinforced a military road that prevents their return, while restricting the passage of humanitarian aid.

The Israeli right aims to make the devastated Gaza City a depopulated buffer zone in the north, or to recolonize it. As for the center ministers, they use the return of the population as a card in the negotiations

The Israeli army is launching raids from two forward bases established on this “corridor,” while also building new structures on the coast, which are supposed to secure the delivery of aid by sea, which the American ally promised at the beginning of May. One Western diplomat fears that “Israel presents these structures as temporary, but they represent a fait accompli that can last for a long time,” Le Monde adds.

The Israeli right aims to make the destroyed Gaza City a depopulated buffer zone in the north, or to recolonize it. As for the centrist Israeli ministers, who are in the minority, they are using the return of Gazans to the north as a pressure card in the ongoing negotiations with Hamas, to force it to release its hostages.

A proposal in this regard was put forward in Cairo at the end of April, according to a Lebanese newspaper and Israeli Army Radio. This may lead to the withdrawal of Israeli forces, at least temporarily, from the road that cuts through the enclave in the middle, Le Monde explains.

However, all components of the ruling coalition in Israel demand the “freedom of action” of the army in Gaza in the long term, and agree on the fact that the “stabilization” phase must continue for many years after the war, which requires regular raids against Hamas and the armed brigades in Gaza. The French newspaper confirms.

A “buffer zone” on the border

Israel systematically destroyed buildings on a one-kilometre-wide strip of land along the Gaza border, by bombing, starting in October 2023, and then deploying teams of explosives experts from November. This “security zone” extends largely over agricultural lands in the enclave, which produced about 20% of its food needs before the war. It extends into the no man's land - which until then was 100 meters wide - on the border of the wall that Hamas commandos crossed on October 7, 2023, to kill 1,200 civilians and soldiers in Israel. It also covers the old walkway and the military observation points set up by the Palestinian Islamic Movement in front of the wall, Le Monde continues, noting that right-wing politicians in Israel have spoken, since the beginning of the war, about the necessity of “punishing” Gaza by cutting off part of its territory. Eli Cohen, the foreign minister at the time, said that “the territory of Gaza will also be reduced.” The Hebrew State proposed this project for the first time in December 2023 with the Arab countries.

But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu only officially announced his presence last February, by unveiling a plan for the post-war period in Gaza. He said at the time: “The security zone established in the Gaza Strip, within the perimeter of Israel’s borders, will remain in place as long as the need for security requires it.” This massive destruction of civilian property could constitute a war crime and, in the long term, a land grab, Le Monde says.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk assessed in February that “Israel did not provide clear reasons for such widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure.” He reminded “the Israeli authorities that the forced transfer of civilians constitutes a war crime.” For its part, the United States recognized the security imperatives put forward by its ally, while emphasizing that they must remain temporary. The Hebrew state sees this as a necessity to reassure the population around the Strip, and to rebuild its abandoned cities, Le Monde always explains in this investigation.

Evacuating the northern Gaza Strip of its residents

The main strategic decision of the Israeli army in this war - Le Monde continues - remains the forced displacement of the population of the northern Gaza Strip, in order to dismantle the “Hamas” brigades and destroy part of its infrastructure.

Since the Israeli army withdrew from the city last January, about 300,000 Palestinians remain isolated there and threatened with starvation, according to the United Nations. Under international pressure, the Israeli army allowed “partners from the private sector” to provide aid, and the effects of this have begun to appear, according to the French newspaper, also noting that the Hebrew state also allowed the United Nations to open two food distribution centers in the north.

On May 1, Israel also announced the reopening of the old Erez crossing to allow food aid to pass through its territory. But the Israeli army fears that activists from the extreme religious right, who support ethnic cleansing in Gaza, will obstruct the arrival of aid, and that the police will facilitate their movements, under the authority of a minister from their movement, explains “Le Monde.”

Le Monde continued to clarify that Benjamin Netanyahu ruled out speaking with Fatah, which controls power in the West Bank, to discuss future governance in the north […] At the same time, voices are rising in Israel in favor of forming a military government in the northern Gaza Strip. The Prime Minister's new military secretary, General Roman Goffman, distributed a document last April defending this option. The army and government have made it clear that this is a personal opinion.

Netanyahu: The security zone established in the Gaza Strip, within the perimeter of Israel’s borders, will remain in place as long as the need for security requires it.

For their part, the centrist ministers in the war government are campaigning for the establishment of a “local Palestinian entity” responsible for civil affairs, without explicitly referring to Fatah or the Palestinian Authority led by Mahmoud Abbas.

They aim to persuade Egypt and Jordan to supervise this local authority with Israel and deploy forces in Gaza. The major neighboring Arab countries still oppose this plan, fearing in particular that they will find themselves under the fire of Hamas and Israel, Le Monde confirms.

In any case, these Israeli ministers intend to maintain the maximum “freedom of action” for the army in the Gaza Strip, so that it can carry out, for many years, raids that allow the “demilitarization” of the Strip, alone, or in cooperation with a Palestinian civil authority.

A corridor cuts the area into two parts

Satellite images analyzed by Le Monde show that, in mid-February, Israel began developing the 6.6-kilometre-long military “corridor,” which isolates Gaza City from the rest of the Strip, on its southern edge. This installation partly follows the path of a previous road that was intended for Jewish settlers from the settlement of Netzarim, whose location contributed to the security division of the Gaza Strip into sections until the Israeli withdrawal in 2005.

The strengthening of these structures raises concerns that the army is “preparing to stay longer” in the area, says Judge Scott Anderson, deputy director of operations for UNRWA, the main UN agency in Gaza.

These facilities reinforce the checkpoints that the army established at the end of 2023 on the coastal road and the Salah al-Din Road, the only two crossings to the south, where residents are still fleeing due to hunger.

Israeli forces are launching raids against the restructuring of Hamas forces in the north, such as the operation that led to the destruction of Al-Shifa Hospital last March, as well as in the Nuseirat and Bureij area in the centre, says Le Monde.

At the end of April, Israel proposed leaving this corridor at least temporarily, in the fourth week of a possible ceasefire, when Hamas would have released about twenty hostages. But this corridor is the only means the army has to safely control the Gaza Strip and secure the delivery of aid promised by the United States by sea. Without a corridor, these deliveries would not be possible. Former General Israel Ziv said, “The army will have to control it as long as Israel does not decide to cooperate with Fatah, until it regains control of Gaza, and as long as we do not seek a long-term political solution.”

At the same time, the Arab country threatens to launch an attack on Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, where there are 1.4 million displaced people, in order to cut off Hamas’ arms smuggling tunnels on the Egyptian border, according to “Le Monde,” explaining that in this case, the army plans The Israeli government opened “safe zones” for the displaced as close as possible to the central corridor, in Nuseirat and Bureij. The Hebrew state has purchased 40,000 tents designated to shelter these displaced people. Satellite images show new rows of square tents being installed in recent days. The extreme right is pressing to carry out this operation in Rafah. On Monday, Bezalel Smotrich, Minister of Finance, called for the “total annihilation” of the cities of Rafah, Deir al-Balah and Nuseirat.

Rafts on the coast

 At the end of the Netzarim Road, the army is establishing a military zone to secure the unloading of international humanitarian aid transported by sea, which is supposed to reduce the food shortages organized by Israel, which keeps its land borders partially closed, “Le Monde” points out, adding that the satellite images, which were taken at the beginning of In March, the new dock built by the NGO World Central Kitchen emerges from the rubble. Off the coast, 6 nautical miles (11.4 kilometers), US military ships are completing the construction of a temporary floating dock, which is expected to become operational in the coming days. This could continue until September, as long as conditions at sea permit.

A private American security company is raising money from countries to build another pontoon, to transport UN aid there from Cyprus

The American private security company Fogbow is also raising money from countries to build another pontoon very close to this area, and to transport UN aid there from Cyprus. But the French authorities are still resisting these aid projects by sea, believing that they cannot compensate for the failure to reopen the land borders. The Fogbow project is also part of a longer logic, with the ambition to help transport heavy materials for the post-war reconstruction of the enclave, Le Monde says.

A mortar shell hit this Israeli safe zone on April 24, while American action at sea began.

 The next day, Deputy Head of Hamas’ Political Bureau, Khalil al-Hayya, indicated that the movement would attack any non-Palestinian presence “at sea or on land.”

Israel also continues to restrict aid deliveries by land from Egypt and Jordan. The number of Jordanian convoys allowed to pass through the occupied Palestinian territories in the West Bank and by Israel is still symbolic. Certainly, Israel allowed the Hashemite Kingdom to parachute food into the air. But this represents, again, small amounts.

Another Western diplomatic source indicates that “there is a strategic Israeli desire to isolate Gaza,” and therefore Jordan’s efforts, which call for the return of the Palestinian Authority to Gaza, are seen as an obstacle to isolating the Strip, says “Le Monde.”

Sama