Israel is building a road to divide Gaza into two parts

(CNN) — CNN analysis of satellite images shows that the road being built by the Israeli army dividing Gaza into two parts has reached the Mediterranean coast. Israeli officials have said it is part of a security plan to control the area in the coming months and possibly years.

A satellite image from March 6 shows that the East-West Highway, which has been under construction for weeks, now extends from the Gaza-Israel border area to the entire 6.5-kilometre-wide enclave that divides northern Gaza from southern Gaza, including Gaza City. Does. Enclave. According to a CNN analysis, about 2 kilometers consists of existing road, while the rest is new.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told CNN that they were using the route to “establish an operational foothold in the area” and allow “the passage of forces as well as logistics equipment.” When asked about the completion of the route, the IDF said that the road existed before the war and was being “renovated” because branded vehicles were “damaging” it. He further stated that “there is no beginning and end.”

On February 23, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented his security cabinet with a plan obtained by CNN for the future of post-Hamas Gaza, which includes “complete demilitarization” of the enclave and an overhaul of its security systems. Security, civil administration and education. Palestinians living in Gaza fear that Israel’s post-war security plans will further restrict their freedom of movement, recalling the days of Israeli occupation before 2005, when checkpoints were placed between neighboring cities and Bypass roads were built. Special to connect Israeli settlements with each other and with Israel.

The “Netzarim Corridor”, named after the former Israeli settlement of Netzarim in Gaza, crosses one of Gaza’s two main north-south highways, Salaheddin Street, to create a strategic central hub. Satellite images show that it also appears to connect to the Al Rasheed Highway, which runs along the coast. Palestinians told CNN that they remembered that the so-called “Netzarim crossing” existed before 2005; At the time, it was mostly accessible only to Israeli residents.

Israel’s Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli told CNN that the new road “will make it easier” for Israeli forces to conduct raids north of Gaza City and toward the enclave’s central area in the south.

He said the highway, which will be used for at least a year, will have three lanes: one for heavy tanks and armored vehicles, a second for light vehicles and a third for fast travel. It would be possible to drive from Israeli Kibbutz Berry near the Gaza border to the Mediterranean Sea along the Netzarim corridor in seven minutes, he said.

Chikli does not participate in Israeli military politics. But in January, Chikli, along with other members of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, proposed a plan Defeating Hamas included measures to gain control over strategic parts of the enclave. In it, he said that the Netzarim corridor would be used “to allow the remediation of Hamas’s underground infrastructure and its resistance areas in the northern Gaza Strip.”

The resolution states, “Inhabitants of the Gaza Strip should not be allowed to return to the north at least until all underground infrastructure has been demolished and the area has been completely demilitarized ” It also included a second corridor further south called the Sufa corridor. The IDF has not adopted the plan, but it includes elements that are coming into existence, such as the Netzarim corridor.

Cut the enclave into two parts

A series of before-and-after satellite images from October 7 show how Israel is widening an existing road to build the corridor. A Feb. 29 image provided by Maxar Technologies and reviewed by CNN shows sections of newly dug road to the east and west of the existing road. And a March 6 satellite image, provided by Planet Labs, shows new construction reaching the coast.

The Israeli army began digging roads for its armored vehicles shortly after declaring war on Hamas on October 7, following the extremist group’s attack on Israel. Satellite images from November show the runway as the army advanced from the east and focused on encircling Gaza City. In early October, Israel ordered the evacuation of 1.1 million people from northern Gaza to southern Wadi Gaza, a strip of wetland that divides the enclave in two.

In February, the Israeli military gave right-wing Israeli TV Channel 14 a guided tour of the Netzarim corridor, revealing that “barrier” work was underway around the highway. Reports show Israeli Corps of Engineers forces driving tractors, trucks and engineering equipment.

Lieutenant Colonel Shimon Orakabi, commander of the “601” battalion of the Corps of Combat Engineers, told Channel 14 that troops were busy destroying any remaining infrastructure in the buffer zone. “It basically opened up this entire area to us, allowing us to control everything that happens in this corridor,” he said.

He said that Israeli forces used “a large number of mines and explosives” to demolish buildings in the buffer zone, and that the remaining buildings in the area “will probably soon disappear.”

Channel 14 reports showed the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, about 380 meters down the road, partly in ruins and troops active in the area.

In a video shared on TikTok and verified by CNN, Israeli soldiers can be seen destroying the entrance to the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital. A video posted on a social media platform by an Israeli soldier on February 22 and later removed also showed soldiers in an armored vehicle entering the medical complex.

The IDF told CNN that it had destroyed a portion of a “network of tunnels” under the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, which it claimed “connected the north and south” of the enclave.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said in February that destroying residential buildings and other civilian structures less than a kilometer from the fence between Israel and Gaza to create a security zone could constitute a war crime.

“Disgrace Barrier”

Emily Harding, director of the Intelligence, National Security and Technology Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, told CNN that the Netzarim Corridor is an effort to “control population movement.”

The road dividing the enclave, he said, would make it easier to “keep an eye on people moving between the north and the south and try to find out if any of them are Hamas fighters.”

Harding said Israel’s biggest challenge since the Gaza operation began is to try to root out Hamas terrorists hiding among the civilian population: “The only way to do that is to have really good tactical intelligence on the ground, and “Then to effectively prevent them from advancing into the area.” ,

Many Gazans remember how they were subject to movement controls before Israel withdrew from the enclave.

During the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation between 2000 and 2005, known as the Second Intifada, the so-called “Netzarim crossing” was completely closed, Jamal al-Rozi, a professor in Gaza City, told CNN. Was. It became the center of clashes between Palestinians and Israelis.

“The crossing was manned by Israeli soldiers all the time, and since it was used by Israeli settlers, most of us Palestinians could not do that,” he said.

According to a 2004 Human Rights Watch (HRW) report, during this period, Israel tightened its “internal closure” policies primarily for settlement security, leaving only one route between the northern and southern parts of Gaza. Went. There were Abu Holi and Mataheen checkpoints on this route, which severely restricted movement.

“The Abu Holi checkpoint had a bad reputation,” al-Rouzi said, recalling the route from Gaza City to the southern city of Khan Yunis, which took “several days” to travel.

“They put a traffic light there that just went red. Red to red. Can you imagine that? I remember it well.”

Gaza City lawyer Munthar al-Ashi told CNN that Abu Holi was rarely open. He grew up there and recalls “almost impossible” movement through the checkpoint in the early 2000s. “It was a barrage of insults.”

“I remember that at that time my brother and I used to sell clothes. We would leave early in the morning to go south. Sometimes the post was open, but on the return we would spend an average of eight or nine hours. Sometimes- What used to happen was closed down and people spent the night on the road,” he says.

“The memories of that checkpoint are painful,” he said. “Imagine 200 or 300 cars waiting at the checkpoint for Israeli soldiers to arrive.”

The war between Israel and Hamas has displaced both al-Ashi and al-Rozi from the north to the southern city of Rafah.

Al Rouzi said, “If our home in Gaza City had not been bombed, I would like to return there. How can I do that if there are gates and checkpoints in my way?”

He added, “Also, if I manage to cross again how will we operate there? Will there be infrastructure left? Roads that I can use?” “I’m a teacher. Will there be schools where I can teach? Will I be able to access them?”

CNN’s Ibrahim Dahman and Gianluca Mezzofiore contributed to this report.