Israel establishing infrastructure for long-term military presence in Gaza, satellite images suggest
There is evidence Israel could be establishing infrastructure in Gaza signalling plans for a long-term military presence in the Strip.
Satellite imagery, gathered over months, has mapped the creation of a new corridor in northern Gaza that is almost a kilometre in width in some places. It reaches from Gaza’s border with Israel to the edge of the town of Beit Hanoun.
The IDF has bulldozed farmland, orchards and buildings to create the corridor, which allows the IDF some freedom of movement while denying Gazans access to their homes, many of which no longer exist.
Analysts from Forensic Architecture, which have put together the findings, believe it is part of a long-term strategy.
Samaneh Moafi says corridors are ‘well-honed colonial techniques of fragmentation and separation’
“This is alarming because in the history of Israel’s occupation corridors were used to fragment Palestinian territories, particularly in the West Bank,” says Samaneh Moafi.
“Corridors are actually well-honed colonial techniques of fragmentation and separation. And lastly, what these corridors are doing, is that they will be preventing access, preventing return [of residents].”
Israel already has control of two strategic ‘corridors’ in Gaza: the Netzarim passage bisects the Strip from east to west cutting off northern Gaza from the south, and Israeli forces have occupied the Philadelphi Corridor since May. The Philadelphi runs nine miles along the southern Gaza border with Egypt to the Mediterranean Sea.
For years, Hamas used tunnels into the Egyptian Sinai to smuggle goods and weapons into Gaza.
How the area looked in November 2023. Pic: Forensic Architecture
‘Military strategy is to prevent Hamas re-arming itself’
Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly refused to withdraw Israeli forces from the corridor, fearing Hamas will try and rearm through that route. Hamas has insisted the IDF pulls back.
By January 2024 the IDF had cleared land and appeared to be building a new road. Pic: Forensic Architecture
“The military strategy here is to prevent Hamas re-arming itself and rebuilding its military power,” explained former Israeli intelligence officer Avi Melamed.
“In that regard, particularly the Philadelphi pass and the Rafah crossing are the most significant critical element: firstly because the fact that Hamas basically either through the tunnels under the Philadelphi road or through Rafah crossing itself, basically was streaming huge amounts of weapons and ammunition to the Gaza Strip.”
By May almost all the homes and farmland within a kilometre of the Gaza border appeared to have been bulldozed. Pic: Forensic Architecture
Additionally, Mr Netanyahu wants to keep Israeli forces along the Netzarim corridor to prevent Hamas fighters from moving within Gaza.
By June the IDF had cleared a corridor more than 900m wide. Pic: Forensic Architecture
‘I see Israel acting freely inside the Gaza Strip’
The ongoing presence of the IDF in these areas is one of the main reasons a ceasefire is yet to be agreed.
“What Hamas have been able to do is to move their terror troops from the north to the south to the different neighbourhoods and if you don’t sever the north from the south then you cannot really blow up in a very systematic way that subterranean arena,” assesses former IDF Colonel Miri Eisin.
“As it is right now, I see Israel acting freely inside the Gaza Strip unless there is a real force that can work instead to stop the terror capabilities.”
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Israel could try to keep military presence in Gaza over long period
On Thursday evening, the Israeli Security Cabinet voted in favour of keeping IDF troops in the Philadelphi Corridor, despite some Israeli security officials advising the prime minister a partial withdrawal could be managed.
One theory a number of security veterans have suggested to Sky News is that Israel will try and keep a military presence in Gaza over a long period – some predict months, while others think it could be years.
The working assumption is the IDF would use these positions as staging posts to effectively fight a counter-insurgency, carrying out operations within Gaza as and when deemed necessary, similar to the way the IDF operates in Palestinian-controlled urban areas of the West Bank.
Israel pushed to present ‘day-after’ plan
Ceasefire talks have continued in Cairo and Doha this week, with lower-level mediators in attendance. They have reportedly focused on the finer details of a ceasefire, parking the bigger issue of the Philadelphi and Netzarim corridors for future negotiation.
If neither side compromises on the presence of Israeli forces in these corridors, then a ceasefire will remain unreachable.
Israel has been pushed by Washington, and others, to present a ‘day-after’ plan for Gaza’s future, which would determine who will govern it and who will fund the reconstruction. No comprehensive or agreeable plan has been put forward.
Unless, that is, it is already in motion, as suggested by the satellite analysis: a military occupation designed to keep Israel secure, but would see fighting in Gaza continue for a long time to come.
Nine of a doctor’s 10 children have been killed in an Israeli missile strike on their home in Gaza, which also left her surviving son badly injured and her husband in a critical condition.
Warning: This article contains details of child deaths
Alaa Al Najjar, a paediatrician at Al Tahrir Clinic in the Nasser Medical Complex, was at work during the attack on her home, south of the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, on Friday.
Graphic footage shared by the Hamas-run Palestinian Civil Defence shows the bodies of at least seven small children being pulled from the rubble.
Rescuers can be seen battling fires and searching through a collapsed building, shouting out when they locate a body, before bringing the children out one by one and wrapping their remains in body bags.
In the footage, Dr Al Najjar’s husband, Hamdi Al Najjar, who is also a doctor, is put on to a stretcher and then carried to an ambulance.
The oldest of their children was only 12 years old, according to Dr Muneer Alboursh, the director general of Gaza’s health ministry, which is run by Hamas.
Nine children were killed in the strike. Pic: Palestinian Civil Defence
“This is the reality our medical staff in Gaza endure. Words fall short in describing the pain,” he wrote in a social media post.
“In Gaza, it is not only healthcare workers who are targeted – Israel’s aggression goes further, wiping out entire families.”
Pic: Palestinian Civil Defence
British doctors describe ‘horrific’ and ‘unimaginable’ attack
Two British doctors working at Nasser Hospital described the attack as “horrific” and “unimaginable” for Dr Al Najjar.
Speaking in a video diary on Friday night, Dr Graeme Groom said his last patient of the day was Dr Al Najjar’s 11-year-old son, who was badly injured and “seemed much younger as we lifted him on to the operating table”.
Hamdi Al Najjar, Dr Al Najjar’s husband who is also a doctor, was taken to hospital. Pic: Palestinian Civil Defence
The strike “may or may not have been aimed at his father”, Dr Groom said, adding that the man had been left “very badly injured”.
Dr Victoria Rose said the family “lived opposite a petrol station, so I don’t know whether the bomb set off some massive fire”.
Pic: Palestinian Civil Defence
‘No political or military connections’
Dr Groom added: “It is unimaginable for that poor woman, both of them are doctors here.
“The father was a physician at Nasser Hospital. He had no political and no military connections. He doesn’t seem to be prominent on social media, and yet his poor wife is the only uninjured one, who has the prospect of losing her husband.”
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Nineteen of Gaza’s hospitals remain operational, all of them are overwhelmed with the number of patients and a lack of supplies
He said it was “a particularly sad day”, while Dr Rose added: “That is life in Gaza. That is the way it goes in Gaza.”
Sky News has approached the Israeli Defence Forces for comment.
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Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza began when the militant group stormed across the border into Israel on 7 October 2023, killing some 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and abducting 251 others.
Israel’s military response has flattened large areas of Gaza and killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count.
World
UN’s Antonio Guterres condemns ‘teaspoon’ of aid allowed into Gaza after dozens die in airstrikes
The head of the UN has said Israel has only authorised for Gaza what amounts to a “teaspoon” of aid after at least 60 people died in overnight airstrikes.
UN secretary general Antonio Guterres said on Friday the supplies approved so far “amounts to a teaspoon of aid when a flood of assistance is required,” adding “the needs are massive and the obstacles are staggering”.
He warned that more people will die unless there is “rapid, reliable, safe and sustained aid access”.
A woman at the site of an Israeli strike in Jabalia, northern Gaza. Pic: Reuters
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Gaza: ‘Loads of children with huge burns’
Israel says around 300 aid trucks have been allowed through since it lifted an 11-week blockade on Monday, but according to Mr Guterres, only about a third have been transported to warehouses within Gaza due to insecurity.
The IDF said 107 vehicles carrying flour, food, medical equipment and drugs were allowed through on Thursday.
Many of Gaza’s two million residents are at high risk of famine, experts have warned.
Meanwhile, at least 60 people have been killed by Israeli airstrikes across Gaza overnight.
Ten people died in the southern city of Khan Younis, and deaths were also reported in the central town of Deir al-Balah and the Jabaliya refugee camp in the north, according to the Nasser, Al-Aqsa and Al-Ahli hospitals where the bodies were brought.
A body is carried out of rubble after an Israeli strike in Jabalia, northern Gaza. Pic: Reuters
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‘Almost everyone depends on aid’ in Gaza
The latest strikes came a day after two Israeli embassy workers were killed in Washington.
The suspect, named as 31-year-old Elias Rodriguez from Chicago, Illinois, told police he “did it for Gaza”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Sir Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and Mark Carney of fuelling antisemitism following the shootings.
The leaders of the UK, France and Canada are “on the wrong side of humanity and (…) history”, he said, after they threatened “concrete action” against Israel this week if it continues its “egregious” military operations in Gaza.
Mr Netanyahu also accused Sir Keir, Mr Macron and Mr Carney of siding with “mass murderers, rapists, baby killers and kidnappers”.
Palestinians search for casualties in Jabalia, northern Gaza. Pic: Reuters
But UK government minister Luke Pollard told Sky News on Friday morning he “doesn’t recognise” Mr Netanyahu’s accusation.
Earlier this week, Mr Netanyahu said he was recalling negotiators from the Qatari capital, Doha, after a week of ceasefire talks failed to bring results. A working team will remain.
The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on 7 October 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 251 others.
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The militants are still holding 58 captives, around a third of whom are believed to be alive, after most of the rest were returned in ceasefire agreements or other deals.
Israel’s offensive, which has destroyed large swaths of Gaza, has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.
A woman has been arrested after 12 people were reportedly injured in a stabbing at Hamburg’s central train station in Germany.
An attacker armed with a knife targeted people on the platform between tracks 13 and 14, according to police.
They added that the suspect was a 39-year-old woman.
Police at the scene. Pic: AP
Officers said they “believe she acted alone” and investigations into the stabbing are continuing.
There was no immediate information on a possible motive.
The fire service said six of the injured were in a life-threatening condition, three others were seriously hurt, and another three sustained minor injuries, news agency dpa reported.
The attack happened shortly after 6pm local time (5pm UK time) on Friday in front of a waiting train, regional public broadcaster NDR reported.
A high-speed ICE train with its doors open could be seen at the platform after the incident.
Railway operator Deutsche Bahn said it was “deeply shocked” by what had happened.
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Four tracks at the station were closed in the evening, and some long-distance trains were delayed or diverted.
Hamburg is Germany‘s second biggest city, with the train station being a hub for local, regional and long-distance trains.
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