By Abdelraouf Arnaout
JERUSALEM (AA) – The Israeli army is building infrastructure, expanding roads and establishing large facilities in Gaza, in a move that shows it is planning to remain in the enclave until at least the end of 2025, an Israeli newspaper said on Wednesday.
“The work is progressing at full speed. What was a dirt embankment with the rubble of destroyed buildings a few months ago is now a very active construction site. Wide roads are being built, cellular antennas are going up, water, sewage and electricity networks are going in and of course there are the buildings, some portable and others less so,” Haaretz said.
“The development momentum is in full swing, and the goal – whether it is talked about openly or not – is clear: building the infrastructure for the military's prolonged stay in the field, at least in the first stage.”
According to the Israeli daily, the army is acting to hold no fewer than four large areas in different parts of the Palestinian enclave.
Regarding the Netzarim Axis, which links the far eastern and western parts of the Gaza Strip, Haaretz said that “after extensive groundwork in the surrounding area, it is not a road but rather a large area with no buildings. Instead of homes, a road; instead of a neighborhood, desert.”
“The corridor, which leads to the former site of the Netzarim settlement, is five to six kilometers (three to four miles) wide and about nine kilometers long.”
Sources told Haaretz that the dimensions are not final and the army “is currently working to widen it even more.”
This route is one of the main points of contention in Gaza cease-fire talks, as Hamas insists on a complete Israeli withdrawal, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demands a mechanism to prevent Palestinian fighters from moving from southern to northern Gaza.
The newspaper said that the third area is the Salah al-Din (Philadelphi) Corridor on the southern border between Gaza and Egypt.
“The army has already flattened large expanses on either side of it: about one kilometer in some places, as many as three in others. The political leadership has even asked for an additional kilometer, but military sources say that four kilometers is unfeasible in some areas, because it would mean destroying entire neighborhoods in Rafah. That would likely anger the international community,” Haaretz said.
The fourth and longest area, according to the report, is a strip along the eastern border between Gaza and Israel.
“It's a buffer zone at least a kilometer deep between the Israeli communities near the Gazan border and the first houses inside Gaza.
The end is to keep the threat of antitank missiles further from Israelis' homes. The means is by destroying entire neighborhoods.”
“The way it looks on the ground, the Israeli army won't leave Gaza before 2026," an officer in one of the brigades fighting in Gaza told Haaretz.
Israel has continued its devastating offensive on the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, 2023. The onslaught has killed more than 43,700 victims and rendered the enclave almost uninhabitable.
Israel faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its deadly war on Gaza.
*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala