Israeli soldiers testified to demolishing thousands of Gaza buildings—often without threat—as part of a campaign to create a so-called buffer zone, The Washington Post reports.
Israeli soldiers deployed in the Gaza Strip have admitted to systematically demolishing buildings under the pretext of establishing a buffer zone, according to testimonies reported by The Washington Post and collected by the Israeli human rights group Breaking the Silence.
The report, according to the Post, “is based on a dozen accounts from soldiers who were deployed to the perimeter between October 2023 and August 2024, as well as an officer who was in the operations room as planning for the buffer zone was underway.”
The Israeli soldiers said much of the destruction—targeting homes, infrastructure, and agricultural land—occurred without a direct threat to Israeli forces.
The report highlights that “unlike many other combat zones in the Gaza Strip, the annihilation of infrastructure and buildings in the perimeter sometimes occurred after the area was captured, when no immediate or concrete threat to the forces was present”.
Engineering units in the Israeli army were reportedly “ordered to demolish more than 3,500 buildings using explosives or bulldozers.”
Israeli soldiers also acknowledged leveling “orchards and crop fields, they said, which Palestinians once used to grow wheat, barley, olives, almonds, strawberries and citrus fruits.”
Officers reportedly told troops that demolitions were necessary to prevent another attack like the one on October 7, 2023. However, the testimonies suggest the destruction extended beyond any immediate military necessity.
The report also noted that “from a vantage point in southern Israel last week, Post reporters saw a line of pancaked buildings stretching along the easternmost edge of Gaza City north toward Jabalya and Beit Hanoun.”
“For as far as the eye could see, the borderland was a scene of desolation, the silence broken only by the occasional boom of artillery fire from an Israeli tank position to the north.”
According to the Post, soldiers reported that they were often not given a clear explanation for the demolition operations. Commanding officers typically justified them by saying the buildings posed a threat due to their proximity to the border, claiming that Hamas fighters could use them to conceal themselves, store weapons, or launch attacks.
A combat engineering sergeant is reported as wondering: “Is it justified and proportional to the level of danger that comes from these places?”
The Post noted that these revelations come as Israel ramps up its ground offensive and seeks to assert control over more territory, expanding what it terms “security zones.”
Last week, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz announced further territorial seizures, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unveiled plans for a new military corridor near Rafah in southern Gaza, intensifying efforts to divide the Strip and escalate military pressure.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
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