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’s deadly strike on West Bank city
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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.
World
Russia wants ‘quick peace’ in Ukraine and London is ‘head of those resisting it’, ambassador to UK tells Sky News
Russia wants “quick peace” in Ukraine and London is at the “head of those resisting” it, the Russian ambassador to the UK has told Sky News.
In an interview on The World With Yalda Hakim, Andrei Kelin accused the UK, France and other European nations of not wanting to end the war in Ukraine.
“We are prepared to negotiate and to talk,” he said. “We have our position. If we can strike a negotiated settlement… we need a very serious approach to that and a very serious agreement about all of that – and about security in Europe.”
Russian ambassador Andrei Kelin speaks to Yalda Hakim
US President Donald Trump held a surprise phone call with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin last month, shocking America’s European allies. He went on to call Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a “dictator” and relations between the pair were left in tatters after a meeting in the Oval Office descended into a shouting match.
Days later, the US leader suspended military aid to Ukraine, though there were signs the relationship between the two leaders appeared to be on the mend following the contentious White House meeting last week, with Mr Trump saying he “appreciated” a letter from Mr Zelenskyy saying Kyiv was ready to sign a minerals agreement with Washington “at any time”.
In his interview with Sky News’ Yalda Hakim, Mr Kelin said he was “not surprised” the US has changed its position on Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which began in 2022, claiming Mr Trump “knows the history of the conflict”.
“He knows history and is very different from European leaders,” he added.
No doubt Russia is welcoming shift in world order
I’ve interviewed the Russian ambassador to the UK, Andrei Kelin, on a number of occasions, at times the conversation has been tense and heated.
But today, I found a diplomat full of confidence and cautiously optimistic.
The optics of course have suddenly changed in Russia’s favour since Donald Trump was elected.
I asked him if Russia couldn’t believe its luck. “I would not exaggerate this too much,” he quipped.
Mr Kelin also “categorically” ruled out European troops on the ground and said the flurry of diplomatic activity and summits over the course of the past few weeks is not because Europeans want to talk to Moscow but because they want to present something to Mr Trump.
He appeared to relish the split the world is witnessing in transatlantic relations.
Of course the ambassador remained cagey about the conversations that have taken place between President Trump and Vladimir Putin.
There is no doubt however that Russia is welcoming what Mr Kelin says is a shift in the world order.
Peace deal ‘should recognise Russian advances’
The Russian ambassador said Moscow had told Washington it believed its territorial advances in Ukraine “should be recognised” as part of any peace deal.
“What we will need is a new Ukraine as a neutral, non-nuclear state,” he said. “The territorial situation should be recognised. These territories have been included in our constitution and we will continue to push that all forces of the Ukrainian government will leave these territories.”
Asked if he thought the Americans would agree to give occupied Ukrainian land to Russia, he said: “I don’t think we have discussed it seriously. [From] what I have read, the Americans actually understand the reality.”
Read more:
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US ‘destroying’ world order by trying to meet Russia ‘halfway’
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In full: Russian ambassador’s interview with Sky’s Yalda Hakim
Moscow rules out NATO peacekeepers in Ukraine
He said Russia “categorically ruled out” the prospect of NATO peacekeepers on the ground in Ukraine – a proposal made by UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron – saying “they have no rules of engagement” and so would just be “sitting in cities”.
“It’s senseless” and “not for reality,” Mr Kelin added.
He branded the temporary ceasefire raised by Mr Zelenskyy “a crazy idea”, and said: “We will never accept it and they perfectly are aware of that.
“We will only accept the final version, when we are going to sign it. Until then things are very shaky.”
He added: “We’re trying to find a resolution on the battlefield, until the US administration suggest something constructive.”
World
US ‘destroying’ international rules-based order by trying to meet Russia ‘halfway’, Ukraine’s UK ambassador warns
The United States is “finally destroying” the international rules-based order by trying to meet Russia “halfway”, Ukraine’s ambassador to the UK has warned.
Valerii Zaluzhnyi said Washington’s recent actions in relation to Moscow could lead to the collapse of NATO – with Europe becoming Russian President Vladimir Putin‘s next target.
“The failure to qualify actions of Russia as an aggression is a huge challenge for the entire world and Europe, in particular,” he told a conference at the Chatham House think tank.
Ukraine latest: ‘Watershed moment’ as Kremlin blasts Macron
“We see that it is not just the axis of evil and Russia trying to revise the world order, but the US is finally destroying this order.”
Valerii Zaluzhnyi. Pic: Reuters
Mr Zaluzhnyi, who took over as Kyiv’s ambassador to London in 2024 following three years as commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, also warned that the White House had “questioned the unity of the whole Western world” – suggesting NATO could cease to exist as a result.
It comes as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy scrambles to repair relations with US President Donald Trump following a dramatic row between the two men in the Oval Office last week.
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Mr Trump signalled on Tuesday that tensions could be easing, telling Congress he had received a letter from Mr Zelenskyy saying he was ready to sign a peace deal “at any time”.
Zelenskyy and Trump during their extraordinary Oval Office row. Pic: Reuters
Read more:
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US stops sharing all intelligence with Ukraine
But on the same day, the US president ordered a sudden freeze on shipments of US military aid to Ukraine, and Washington has since paused intelligence sharing with Kyiv and halted cyber operations against Russia.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
Mr Zaluzhnyi said the pause in cyber operations and an earlier decision by the US to oppose a UN resolution condemning Russian aggression in Ukraine were “a huge challenge for the entire world”.
He added that talks between the US and Russia – “headed by a war criminal” – showed the White House “makes steps towards the Kremlin, trying to meet them halfway”, warning Moscow’s next target “could be Europe”.
World
Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh being forced to fight for same military accused of genocide against their people
Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh is a sprawling mass of humanity.Â
It’s a sea of makeshift bamboo shelters, home to more than one million Rohingya refugees – a mainly Muslim minority from Rakhine state in Myanmar.
Some 700,000 fled their homeland back in 2017 – after the Myanmar military massacred thousands.
The army was accused of genocide by the United Nations.
The Rohingya refugees didn’t escape danger though.
Right now, violence is at its worst levels in the camps since 2017 and Rohingya people face a particularly cruel new threat – they’re being forced back to fight for the same Myanmar military accused of trying to wipe out their people.
A child at the refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar
Militant groups are recruiting Rohingya men in the camps, some at gunpoint, and taking them back to Myanmar to fight for a force that’s losing ground.
Jaker is just 19.
We’ve changed his name to protect his identity.
He says he was abducted at gunpoint last year by a group of nine men in Cox’s.
They tied his hands with rope he says and took him to the border where he was taken by boat with three other men to fight for the Myanmar military.
“It was heartbreaking,” he told me. “They targeted poor children. The children of wealthy families only avoided it by paying money.”
And he says the impact has been deadly.
“Many of our Rohingya boys, who were taken by force from the camps, were killed in battle.”
Jaker speaks to Sky’s Cordelia Lynch
An aerial view of the refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar
The situation in Cox’s is desperate.
People are disillusioned by poverty, violence and the plight of their own people and the civil war they ran from is getting worse.
In Rakhine, just across the border, there’s been a big shift in dynamics.
The Arakan Army (AA), an ethnic armed group has all but taken control of the state from the ruling military junta.
Both the military and the AA are accused of committing atrocities against Rohingya Muslims.
And whilst some Rohingya claim they’re being forced into the fray – dragged back to Myanmar from Bangladesh, others are willing to go.
Read more from Sky News:
Bangladesh leader reacts to ‘House of Mirrors’ prison
Inside Bangladesh’s ‘death squad’ jails
Sri Lanka rescues more than 100 people believed to be Rohingya refugees
Teknaf in Cox’s Bazar – where refugees arrive from Myanmar after crossing the Naf River
Some are so aggrieved with the AA, they’re willing to support their former persecutors.
Abu Zar is one of those willing to take up arms.
But not for the military or AA, he says.
Everyone praying in the mosque with him is prepared to go back to protect their own cause he says – not anyone else’s.
“We want to fight for our rights because we have been demanding justice for a long time. But the situation has become unbearable,” he tells me.
Abu Zar has said he is willing to take up arms for his own cause
It’s estimated between 3,000 and 5,000 Rohingya have joined armed groups from this camp.
But the fight they are joining has become increasingly bloody.
In a cramped shelter, we meet Safura.
Safura came under fire as she fled Myanmar
Safura’s son Aman had his foot blown off
Five days ago she managed to get out of Myanmar but she had to be carried part of the way.
Her legs are riddled with bullet wounds and the pain is severe.
Her son, Aman, who lies on the floor next to her, has had his foot blown off.
They were injured she said, during an attack on her family home in the middle of the night.
“They entered our house and shot all my family members. My husband and mother-in-law were killed on the spot.”
The military denies forcing Rohingya to the battlefield. But the camps tell a different story- one of surging violence and vulnerability.
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