DUBAI, September 5. /TASS/. The Amnesty International human rights organization has called for an investigation of measures by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to destroy civilian property in the Gaza Strip in an effort to expand the so-called buffer zone on the border as war crimes.
An analysis of satellite imagery shows that the Israeli army had cleared between 1 km and 1.8 km of land across the northern and eastern Palestinian enclave, Amnesty International said in an investigation. According to it, this buffer zone covers around 58 square kilometers, or 16% of the entire Gaza Strip. As of May, as many as 3,500 structures or more than 90% of the buildings within that sector were destroyed or badly damaged, it revealed.
The international NGO said in some areas investigated by it the destruction was caused after the IDF had operational control over those areas. "Using bulldozers and manually laid explosives, the Israeli military has unlawfully destroyed agricultural land and civilian buildings, razing entire neighborhoods, including homes, schools and mosques," Amnesty International emphasized. International humanitarian law bans all parties to an armed conflict from destroying enemy property unless it is required by imperative military necessity, the organization insisted.
Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7, 2023, when militants from the Gaza Strip-based radical Palestinian movement Hamas staged a surprise attack on Israeli territory from Gaza, killing residents of Israeli border settlements and taking hostages. In response, Israel launched a military operation in the Palestinian enclave to destroy Hamas’s military and political wings and free all hostages.