Israel seeks to occupy Gaza By Editor-in-Chief, Ali Abu Hablah
translated from Arabic by Abou Yazid
Israel seeks to occupy Gaza
By Editor-in-Chief, Ali Abu Hablah
November 29, 2024
The war on Gaza takes on a geopolitical dimension. The Israeli occupation forces seek to change the topography to prepare the geography for a permanent occupation of Gaza, where the Israeli occupation army turns the axes into wide streets and establishes headquarters and infrastructure, establishing through this its long-term survival there, in what practically represents a return to the pre-2005 period, when the Gaza Strip was still occupied, and there are several Israeli settlements. According to Haaretz, one Israeli field officer said, “The army will not leave Gaza before 2026. Although “we are not clearly told if there is an intention (to return settlements), everyone knows where things are headed.”
Construction is progressing rapidly; what a few months ago consisted of dirt piles and the remains of destroyed buildings is now “a construction site in rapid stages of development, wide roads have been paved, cellular antenna poles have been erected, as well as water, sewage, electricity, mobile and fixed infrastructure.” According to the newspaper, the Israeli army does not carry out these actions only in the “Netzarim axis” but is repeated in more than one axis and area in the Gaza Strip. The aim is to build an infrastructure to serve the army long in Gaza.
It is true that since the beginning of the war, the occupation has controlled territory and axes in the Strip, but the data received by the newspaper regarding the scope and speed of the work indicate the establishment of pockets reminiscent of the period before the implementation of the “disengagement” plan from Gaza in 2005, i.e., the wide street in Netzarim and the surrounding military sites. The army is also building another street in the Kissufim axis, opposite the Israeli settlement of Kissufim in Al-Ghalaf, specifically between the Deir al-Balah and Khan Yunis governorates in the southern Gaza Strip. Next to it is a gathering area for Israeli troops, as well as an open area, “at least for now.”
The changes made by the occupation army in Gaza are not the only evidence of the intention to remain in the Gaza Strip in the future, and according to statements by officers and soldiers in the reserve and regular service who recently received a “combat graph for the year 2025”, indicating the continuation of the army’s position in Gaza next year. According to soldiers and officers in interviews with the newspaper, in recent weeks, the army has begun to loot large areas in the heart of the Strip, destroying existing buildings and infrastructure, under the pretext of eliminating the danger that threatens the soldiers from the population “in the military dictionary.” In return for this systematic destruction, the army establishes its survival by building wide streets and preparing the ground for long stays.
At the same time, the goal of the battle in the northern Gaza Strip, which has been taking place for two months, is to empty the northern Gaza Strip of civilians and turn it into a military zone. While senior officials at the political and security levels claim that “evacuating the north is not part of the generals’ plan” to impose a siege on that area, empty it of its inhabitants, and withhold humanitarian aid, senior officers who spoke to Haaretz assert that “what is being said to citizens in Israel does not necessarily reflect what is happening on the ground.” According to them, the IDF “is currently required to evacuate villages and cities of their inhabitants.” As one officer explains, “More than half a million Palestinians lived in this area on the eve of the war, and now there are about 20,000 people, perhaps less.”
The area of Israel’s new ethnic cleansing operations includes Jabalia, Beit Lahiya, and other areas in the north, where there is no longer a habitable home. “This is no coincidence; interviews with officers and soldiers in the area, after a tour, it is clear that the army is systematically leveling (already dilapidated buildings) to the ground,” which one senior officer tried to justify: “We don’t wake up in the morning to turn on the D9 bulldozers to demolish alive. “But if we need to advance to certain areas, we don’t risk our forces with ambushes and mines.”
According to Haaretz, the plan implemented by the army indicates the intention of long-term military control, and Israeli Settlement Minister Orit Struck called last Thursday for the continued occupation of the Gaza Strip for “a very long period,” in addition to annexing the occupied West Bank, and Struck, of the far-right Jewish Power party, told the Israeli news site Ynet: “I don’t think there should be an exit strategy” from the Gaza Strip.
Note, translated from Arabic by Abou Yazid.
