Israel wants to occupy conquered Gaza areas in the long run

War in Middle East

Israel wants to occupy conquered Gaza areas in the long run

Israel has been fighting Islamist Hamas in the Gaza Strip for around a year and a half. After a ceasefire, while the hosts were released, the army now relies on military hardness again.

Israel wants to keep all conquered areas in the Gaza Strip, Lebanon and in Syria permanently under military control. The army will remain in the occupied “security zones” and form a buffer between enemy fighters and Israel – “in every temporary or permanent reality” in the Gaza Strip, as Defense Minister Israel Katz said, according to his office. This also applies to conquered areas in Lebanon and Syria.

Unlike in the past, the army will no longer vacate areas, said Katz about the Gaza Strip, in which the Israeli army has wanted to fight and smash Islamist Hamas for a good one and a half years. The announcement of a long -term military presence in parts of the large -scale coastal area is not new. It is already the biggest point of dispute in the indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas. Because the terrorist organization insists on the deduction of the Israeli troops as a prerequisite for releasing other hostages that it dragged it into the Gaza Strip in October 2023.

According to the United Nations, around two thirds of the gaza strip also sealed for humanitarian aid under Israel’s evacuation order or are considered a restricted zone by the army. This applies to almost 70 percent of the Gaza Strip, wrote UN Secretary-General António Guterres on X. “I am very concerned because the (humanitarian) help will continue to be blocked with devastating consequences.”

Israel apparently promises success from its hard line: the pressure on Hamas to agree to an agreement is enormous, Katz said. For the first time, Egypt also made the disarmment of Hamas a condition for a comprehensive agreement and the end of the war. At first there was no official confirmation from Cairo.

In a statement, relatives of the deported hostages expressed doubts about the success of the Israeli strategy in the Gaza Strip. Katz “Plan was an illusion, the forum of the hostage families said. Israel gave priority to the fate of the hostages. The relatives again called for a deal with Hamas to achieve the release of hostages, even if an agreement means the end of the war.

The “Wall Street Journal” reported that Israel’s military has now taken about a third of the Gaza Strip. Overall, more than two million people live in the densely populated area on the Mediterranean.

Katz said hundreds of thousands of residents were asked to flee. In addition, according to the Israeli Minister of Defense, “tens of percent of the area to security zones” were declared. According to its own information, Israel wants to create a larger buffer zone along his border in the Gaza Strip. Other “security zones” controlled by Israel are available between the south and north of the Palestinian area and between the cities of Rafah and Chan Junis south.

The area of ​​life for people in the Gaza Strip is becoming increasingly smaller. The UN Human Rights Office recently complained that Palestinians were violently pushed into ever smaller areas in which they had little or no access to water, food and accommodations. The UN human rights office also fears a permanent expulsion of the civilian population from areas for creating a buffer zone. According to Israeli human rightsists, houses, arable land and infrastructure were also destroyed in many areas to make them uninhabitable.

In Lebanon, Israel’s army is still stationed at five strategic points near the border. Israel justified the whereabouts there that the Lebanese army had not moved up quickly enough and so that it did not meet its obligations. Israel fears further attacks by Iran supported by Lebanese Hezbollah militia. A few months ago, the Israeli army had spoken of a “temporary measure”. But now Katz said that Israel would “remain an overview in a buffer zone in Lebanon in five bases”.

The Lebanese government, on the other hand, is forced to complete the remaining Israeli troops in the country, as in a ceasefire agreement that came into force at the end of November after a year of the war between Israel and the Lebanese Hisbollah.

After the fall of Syria’s ruler Bashar al-Assad at the end of last year, Israel also relocated troops in Syrian area near the annexed Golan heights, more precisely to a buffer zone between the two countries controlled by the United Nations. Israel justifies the procedure with the fight against weapons camps and replenishment paths, which are used by the Islamist Hamas and the Lebanese Hezbollah militia. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu initially spoke of a “temporary measure”.