Sharon Zhang
Truthout / August 21, 2024
Israeli forces have spent the last nine months building and clearing the land around a road giving access to Gaza City.
Over the past months, Israeli forces have been clearing space for and building a road in northern Gaza that may indicate that Israel is intending to maintain a permanent military presence in the region that was home to the largest and most bustling city in the Gaza Strip, a new analysis finds.
According to analysis group Forensic Architecture, satellite imagery shows that Israeli forces have been building this road for the past nine months at least. Construction on the road, which provides the military with access to Gaza City, started during Israel’s initial ground invasion in November.
The images show how Israeli forces have, starting at the border, steadily worked further into Gaza, razing the area around the road — turning to dust what was formerly green and lush farmland owned by Palestinian families.
This is the second corridor that Israel has built in Gaza since it began its genocide. The first was the Netzarim Corridor, which bisects Gaza and where the military maintains a presence, preventing the flow of humanitarian aid between the north and the south.
Taken together, these roads represent “infrastructural indications of an intended Israeli military presence in the northern parts of the occupied Gaza Strip, Forensic Architecture said.
Gaza City was once a bustling place and one of the most densely populated cities on Earth — with Palestinians living under decades of Israeli apartheid. Now, after Israel has carried out numerous raids and bombing campaigns on the city, it is in ruins, its infrastructure destroyed, and any remaining residents faced with famine, repression and violence.
The report reveals how, even if a ceasefire were to commence today, Israel’s plans for the “day after” the genocide are chilling. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long maintained that Israel is planning on demilitarizing Palestinians in Gaza and keeping an Israeli military presence in the area — an even more intense version of its military occupation that Israel has long had in Palestine.
The Netzarim Corridor is evidence of that plan. Israeli forces have already used the road to establish outposts and checkpoints they can use to tightly control the flow of aid across the Strip. Palestinians have said they fear that, even after Israel stops its bombing campaign, the road will likely be used to severely restrict Palestinians’ movements within the besieged enclave.
For decades, Israel has been using checkpoints against Palestinians, notoriously using them as part of its apartheid system to detain Palestinians for hours at a time.
Further adding to the evidence of Israel’s plans to use the road in this way is that the Netzarim Corridor has been a major sticking point in the ceasefire negotiations. Netanyahu has been insistent that Israel be allowed to maintain a military presence around the corridor as part of the negotiations — a point that Netanyahu also seems to be using to sabotage negotiations.
Israel is also seeking control over Gaza’s border with Egypt, known to Israelis as the Philadelphi Corridor, as part of the negotiations.
Sharon Zhang is a news writer at Truthout covering politics, climate and labor
