Israeli soldiers describe clearance of 'kill zone' on Gaza's edge

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Israeli soldiers describe clearance of 'kill zone' on Gaza's edge

By James Mackenzie
April 7, 2025 8:02 AM EDT Updated 12 min ago

JERUSALEM, April 7 (Reuters) - Israeli troops flattened farmland and cleared entire residential districts in Gaza to open a "kill zone" around the enclave, according to a report on Monday that quoted soldiers testifying about the harsh methods used in the operation.

The report, from the Israeli rights group Breaking the Silence, cited soldiers who served in Gaza during the creation of the buffer zone, which was extended to between 800-1,500 metres inside the enclave by December 2024 and which has since been expanded further by Israeli troops.

Israel says the buffer zone encircling Gaza is needed to prevent a repeat of the October 7, 2023 attack by thousands of Hamas-led fighters and gunmen who poured across the previous 300 metre-deep buffer zone to assault a string of Israeli communities around the Gaza Strip. The attack, which killed 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage, was one of the worst security disasters in Israel's history.

"The borderline is a kill zone, a lower area, a lowland," the report quotes a captain in the Armored Corps as saying. "We have a commanding view of it, and they do too."

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Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israeli-soldiers-describe-clearance-kill-zone-gazas-edge-2025-04-07/

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1. Israel controls 50% of Gaza after razing land to expand its buffer zone

Source: Associated Press

Israel controls 50% of Gaza after razing land to expand its buffer zone

By SAM MEDNICK
Updated 4:25 AM EDT, April 7, 2025

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel has dramatically expanded its footprint in the Gaza Strip since relaunching its war against Hamas last month. It now controls more than 50% of the territory and is squeezing Palestinians into shrinking wedges of land.

The largest contiguous area the army controls is around the Gaza border, where the military has razed Palestinian homes, farmland and infrastructure to the point of uninhabitability, according to Israeli soldiers and rights groups. This military buffer zone has doubled in size in recent weeks.

Israel has depicted its tightening grip as a temporary necessity to pressure Hamas into releasing the remaining hostages taken during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that started the war. But the land Israel holds, which includes a corridor that divides the territory’s north from south, could be used for wielding long-term control, human rights groups and Gaza experts say.

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Read more: https://apnews.com/article/gaza-buffer-zone-ceasefire-b7dada19483a3f8ef2fdecbc745ee6b5