Egypt Daily News – The Israeli army is preparing to annex the city of Rafah (southern Gaza) and the surrounding neighborhoods, which account for one-fifth of the Gaza Strip’s area, to the buffer zone it is creating along the border. The area between the Philadelphi Route to the south and the Morag Road to the north had been home to approximately 200,000 Palestinians before the war, but it has been left almost deserted in recent weeks due to the widespread destruction caused by Israeli airstrikes.
According to Haaretz, following the ceasefire, the army called on the remaining civilians to evacuate and move to the designated humanitarian area along the coast around Khan Yunis and the Mawasi area.
So far, the army has refrained from annexing large cities like Rafah into the buffer zone. The decision to annex Rafah came after the government decided to resume the war, following Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s statement that Israel would seize large areas of Gaza.
The report suggests that the army seems to be attempting to replicate the methods used in northern Gaza in the south of the strip.
The expansion of the buffer zone to this extent has significant implications, as it would not only cover a vast area (approximately 75 square kilometers, about one-fifth of Gaza’s total area) but would effectively turn Gaza into a pocket within Israeli-controlled territory, isolating it from the Egyptian border.
Defense sources stated that this consideration played a pivotal role in focusing on Rafah. Additionally, this move is also aimed at creating new leverage against Hamas.
There is growing recognition within the military that Israel is unlikely to gain international support, including from Washington, for a prolonged campaign in Gaza. As a result, the army is preparing to concentrate its operations in areas that it believes will increase pressure on Hamas leadership. Rafah, due to its size and strategic location on the Egyptian border, has become a highly attractive target.
As part of its preparations, the army is already working on expanding the Morag route, demolishing buildings along its length. In some areas, the width of the route will extend several hundred meters, and in some parts, it may exceed one kilometer.
Defense sources noted that it has not yet been decided whether the entire area will be treated simply as a buffer zone prohibited to civilians, as in other parts of the border region, or whether the area will be annexed entirely and all buildings demolished, effectively erasing the city of Rafah from existence.
Unnecessary Risks
With the outbreak of the war in October 2023, the Israeli army announced plans to establish a buffer zone along the Gaza Strip’s borders to protect Israeli border communities from threats, ranging from 800 meters to 1.5 kilometers (about 0.5 to 0.9 miles).
The buffer zone spans around 60 square kilometers, more than 16% of Gaza’s total area, and by October 7, it included about a quarter of a million Palestinians.
A report by the UN’s satellite center published in April 2024 noted that by that time, around 90% of the buildings within the buffer zone had been destroyed or damaged.
The army’s recent activities in the area extend beyond the Morag-to-Philadelphi route, with soldiers recently taking up positions along the perimeter of the zone, which seems to be a preparatory move.
One commander, who fought for over 240 days in Gaza and participated in demolitions and clearance operations along the buffer zone and Netzarim Road, said, “Nothing remains undestroyed in the buffer zone.”
He added, “The entire area is uninhabitable… there’s no need to send such a large number of soldiers to these places.”
He and other soldiers expressed their frustration with the plan to resume operations in these areas.
Reserve soldiers and commanders said that the army is repeating the same messages used at the start of the war without addressing the realities on the ground. One soldier from a reserve brigade currently serving in Gaza stated: “I can’t believe that after a year and a half, we’re back to square one… they’re sending us to destroy what has already been destroyed, without anyone knowing how long this will take, the actual objective, or the level of operational success needed for the troops to complete the mission.”
When soldiers and commanders talk about operational incidents, several can be cited as examples, the deadliest of which occurred in January 2024 when 21 reserve soldiers were killed in an explosion while demolishing buildings in the buffer zone near the Kisufim crossing in central Gaza.
Other deadly incidents also occurred. In January 2025, five soldiers from the Nahal Brigade were killed in a building explosion they were occupying in Beit Hanoun, and in December 2023, two soldiers were killed when a building collapsed in Rafah. These are not isolated incidents.
As the army resumes its cleansing operations and control of parts of Gaza, additional concerns are expected to arise, particularly regarding the potential harm to civilians.
According to accounts from commanders and soldiers, the Gaza Division of the army created a color-coded map for areas within the buffer zone, which was updated periodically.
The map identified areas in red, orange, yellow, and green, with green indicating that over 80% of the buildings in those areas were destroyed. The color-coded map also included residential buildings, greenhouses, barns, and factories.
In practice, the map also turned the demolition of buildings into a competition between units, with each commander eager to show that their sector was more environmentally conscious. A soldier from one of the reserve brigades participating in the cleansing operations along the buffer zone remarked: “It was a great source of pride.”
