The occupation forces destroyed agricultural lands on the Gaza border to create a buffer zone (Reuters)
The Wall Street Journal reported - today, Thursday - that the Israeli army has been working since last November to establish a one-kilometre-deep buffer zone along the border with the Gaza Strip, with the aim of reassuring the Israelis to return to the towns surrounding Gaza, amid American rejection.
The newspaper said that the project is meeting with increasing frustration among American officials, who say that they expressed their opposition to plans to establish buffer zones in the Gaza Strip and then watched Israel move forward with what it wanted, considering that establishing the buffer zone constitutes a reduction of Gaza’s territory and a violation of international law.
The Wall Street Journal quoted the Israeli army as saying that it was destroying the infrastructure of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), but Israeli soldiers working on the border with Gaza confirmed that they were destroying agricultural areas.
American military analysts also told the newspaper that the buffer zone will not prevent future rocket or drone attacks from inside Gaza.
The American newspaper also quoted a former Israeli officer as saying that establishing a permanent buffer zone inside Gaza is illegal, because Israel will assume control of lands outside its recognized borders, as he put it.
"We may accept"
The Wall Street Journal confirmed that the US administration is facing difficulties by pressuring Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stop the buffer zone project, saying that it may accept the establishment of a temporary buffer zone.
The US administration also warned that Israel's establishment of a buffer zone may make it difficult to persuade Arab countries to help in the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip after the end of the war, according to its words.
Israeli officials agreed that the buffer zone might be temporary, but they did not provide the US administration with a timetable or plan, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Demolition of buildings
In a related development, the Financial Times reported that Israel bulldozed between 1,100 and 2,800 buildings, most of which were agricultural greenhouses, to establish a buffer zone inside the Gaza Strip.
The American newspaper quoted an Israeli source as saying that the goal of demolishing the buildings is to prepare this area for free work in the future.
US Defense Secretary Anthony Blinken confirmed the day before yesterday that Washington rejected any permanent change to the geographical status of the Gaza Strip, stressing the need to preserve the territorial integrity of Gaza.
Source: Al Jazeera + American press