From the Liveblog of
Monday, December 2, 2024
Report: IDF has built a dozen new bases in central Gaza in past 3 months
Israel has significantly bolstered its presence in the central Gaza Strip in recent months, and the territory controlled by the IDF around the so-called Netzarim Corridor has rapidly expanded, according to a foreign media report, suggesting that troops are preparing to remain inside the Palestinian enclave for at least the foreseeable future.
Citing satellite images and video footage, the New York Times reports that Israeli forces have also constructed roughly a dozen new bases around the corridor over the past three months.
In response, an IDF spokesman tells the Times that “anything that has been built there can be taken down within a day.”
The Netzarim Corridor, which started as a four-mile strip of land, is built around a road south of Gaza City, enabling the IDF to carry out raids in northern and central Gaza while allowing Israel to control access to the north for Palestinians seeking to return after fleeing south. It also enables Israel to coordinate deliveries of humanitarian aid directly to northern Gaza.
In recent months, however, the corridor has significantly expanded, reaching as far as the outskirts of Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighborhood to the north, and the Wadi Gaza stream to the south, encompassing around 18 square miles of land in total.
Over the past three months, the IDF has been attempting to create what appears to be a buffer zone around the outskirts of the military-controlled block of land, according to the report, and around 600 buildings have been demolished in the process.
Inside the expanded Netzarim Corridor area, satellite images analyzed by the Times reportedly show that the IDF has been building at a rapid pace, having either built or expanded the existing infrastructure of 12 military bases since early September.
All in all, the report says, the IDF has constructed at least 19 large military bases and dozens of smaller ones in the area surrounding the Netzarim Corridor since the start of the war against Hamas last October.
