Wall Street Journal: Israel has occupied one-third of Gaza

Afghan Voice Agency (AVA) - International Service: According to the Wall Street Journal, Israeli soldiers have occupied about one-third of the Gaza Strip in a new round of military operations and have declared security zones in parts of the north and south of it, while expelling the population. This action is being taken within the framework of a new strategy to intensify pressure on Hamas.

 

The American newspaper stated that after a year and a half of the Gaza war, which mainly relied on airstrikes and tactical raids, Israel has now turned to seizing territories and threatening to occupy them indefinitely in order to pressure Hamas to release the hostages still being held in Gaza.

 

The Wall Street Journal analyzes that the Israeli regime is seeking to create deeper buffer zones as part of a new security approach after the deadly attacks by Hamas on October 7, 2023. This move is also considered a way to create new consequences for Hamas by threatening to shrink Palestinian territory if the hostages are not released.

 

An Israeli official said that since the Israeli regime launched a new round of ground attacks in the Gaza Strip in mid-March, more than 30 percent of the territory in the strip has been occupied by the regime’s army.

 

According to the report, most of the recent ground movements of the occupying Jerusalem regime’s army have been focused on the southern Gaza Strip, where the army “has created a new security corridor surrounding the border city of Rafah and warned that the area will become part of Israel’s security buffer zone.”

 

The Wall Street Journal continued its report: “Egyptian officials said that before the occupation, Israel informed Egypt, which shares a border with the city of Rafah, that it intended to keep the area as a buffer zone for the long term, completely separating the city of Rafah from the cities in northern Gaza. Egyptian officials also said that Israel also intends to expand security zones around Gaza City in the north of the strip.”

 

According to the American publication, the Israeli army, in response to a question about its occupation movements, claimed to be following an updated military strategy that requires “maintaining a large military presence in buffer zones where threats have been cleared” and “orders have been given to evacuate the population in order to minimize harm to civilians.”

 

On Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Yisrael Katz claimed that “many areas have been occupied and added to Israel’s security zones, making the Gaza Strip smaller and more isolated.”

 

The American newspaper admits: “The prospect of permanently losing their land reopens old wounds for the people of Gaza, many of whom are descendants of families forced from their homes in the war that followed the creation of Israel more than 75 years ago.”

 

Citing ISNA, the Wall Street Journal also reported, citing Egyptian officials, that Hamas is considering an Egyptian proposal under which up to 11 of the 24 Israeli prisoners held by Hamas who are believed to be alive would be handed over, along with the bodies of several others, in exchange for a 70-day ceasefire. This is roughly the same proposal that Israel and the United States proposed before the war resumed.

 

The proposal includes a demand that Hamas lay down its weapons, a demand that Hamas has strongly rejected.

 

The Wall Street Journal writes: “Such an agreement would temporarily halt the fighting but would delay any discussion of ending the war. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted on a deal that would both release the hostages and allow Israel to continue fighting until Hamas is defeated or voluntarily disarms.”

 

Analysts and officials believe that the Israeli regime aims to use any Hamas opposition to unfair ceasefire terms as an excuse to continue carving up Gaza into separate areas and to evacuate people from their areas under the pretext of trapping Hamas forces.

 

The United Nations has announced that as a result of the evacuation orders that the Israelis issued to Palestinians in Gaza, about 400,000 Palestinians were displaced between March 18 and April 8. According to the United Nations, about two-thirds of Gaza has either been ordered to evacuate or has been designated a no-go zone by Israel.

 

Israeli forces announced on Saturday that they had completed the construction of the “Morag Corridor,” an east-west road separating Rafah from the rest of Gaza.

 

About two weeks earlier, the Israeli regime had ordered the evacuation of the entire city of Rafah, which was home to hundreds of thousands before the recent Gaza war.

 

Sara Sobhi, a 32-year-old Palestinian mother of two, said the Israeli attacks began the day she had packed her belongings and was looking forward to returning home. She now lives in the neighboring city of Khan Yunis. She said she, her five sisters and their parents lost six homes in Rafah. She stressed that while losing her home was hard, losing her land was even harder.