Buffer zones and annexation: Israel’s new strategy in Gaza (2025)

Since Israel resumed its war on the Gaza Strip on 18 March following a hiatus of nearly two months following the ceasefire deal agreed on 19 January, Israeli forces have adopted different operational methods and field tactics from those employed during the first stage of the war.

The second and third phases of the truce deal would have led to an end to the war, but Israel reneged on the agreement.

The current strategy of the Israeli military is predominantly centred on expanding what Israel calls the buffer zone in Gaza and annexing additional territory in the coastal enclave.

Early on in the war, which began in October 2023 following Hamas's attack, Israel relied on aerial and artillery bombardment, as well as extensive assassination operations targeting leading figures in Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), as well as government staff and emergency committee workers.

With Israel's ground invasion in late October 2023, its forces were deployed in Gaza's eastern regions in order to enter the rest of the Strip from these areas. This, however, was largely avoided during the first phase of the war due to fears of the defensive capacity of Palestinian armed groups in those areas at that stage.

Now, Israel is following a different approach - penetrating into various areas in the east of the Gaza Strip along the border from north to south. These areas were originally part of the security buffer zone, with low population densities.

It appears that Israeli forces are seeking to squeeze Gaza's already limited territory to increase pressure on Palestinian fighters and the civilian population by encroaching on more land and annexing it to the buffer zone. At the same time, Israeli forces appear to be avoiding engaging directly with Palestinian armed groups.

Expanding the buffer zone

"Since the resumption of the aggression, ground military operations have focused on establishing and expanding buffer zones in the northern and southern Gaza Strip, exceeding a kilometre in depth along the eastern border, and from there, gradually encroaching into the landmass of the Strip," Ahmed Al-Tanani, director of theArab Centre forStrategic StudiesandResearch, said.

Tanani says the Israeli army is referring to these operations as "deepening the buffer zones and expanding security control".

Speaking to Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, The New Arab's Arabic-language sister edition, he said the Israeli army "isn't rushing to move into the urban areas deeper in the Gaza Strip, where clashes could be expected, but is moving very slowly. There appears to be a great deal of caution to avoid casualties in its ranks".

He points out that "the movement of Israeli vehicles around the Beit Hanoun and Shujaiya areas (north Gaza) is still taking place in exposed areas and within the bounds of areas the occupation [Israel] considers relatively safe and free from resistance forces".

Regarding the current mode of ground operations, Tanani says they "contrast with the prevailing pattern the occupation army's extensive ground manoeuvres took from the beginning of the war".

He says this change can be understood "in light of what Israeli Defence Minister Yisrael Katz and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said recently about controlling territory in Gaza as a means to pressure the resistance […] on the basis that the loss of land and the reduction of the area of the Gaza Strip will deal a huge moral and political blow to the resistance and society in the Strip".

Tanani believes that expanding Gaza's buffer zone is inseparable from Israel's intention to deepen the occupation."The occupation's strategic operational behaviour intersects with the Israeli military's security strategy that crystallised after 7 October 2023, which is based on the idea of setting up multilayered border zones."

He says this idea "entails a physical presence in (enemy) territory, which includes establishing permanent bases and expanding field control operations in a way that will narrow the new security zone along the border. This is what has been done in Lebanon and Syria and is now being implemented in the Gaza Strip".

Writer and political researcher Mohammed al-Akhras believes Israel "has relaunched its war on the Gaza Strip with a different mentality and methodology than previously, as its mode of combat this time bears new characteristics in terms of the nature of the military pressure being applied and where [it's being applied]".

He explained that Israel is now focused on targeting government infrastructure and civilian and field workers in an attempt to shake the confidence of those who support Palestinian armed groups and exact a toll on their support base by cementing a reality of defeat and mental exhaustion.

"The current Israeli military effort isn't aimed solely at achieving concrete gains in the field, but is also being deployed to exert political pressure on the resistance's decision-makers, with the aim of extracting concessions related to the prisoners' file (Israeli hostages) - not for the purpose of ending the war - but rather to impose a new and permanent political reality on the Gaza Strip," Akhras added.

There are numerous political calculations tied to Israel's plans for expanding the buffer zone in Gaza and the annexation of additional territories, according to the analyst.

"The occupation views the hostage issue as an obstacle to the enactment of its political projects and a vision for the post-war phase. Therefore, it is currently adopting a policy of manifold pressure, characterised by extreme caution against direct engagement, and is striving to impose continuing war but with the lowest cost possible to itself."

He believes Israel "is attempting through this approach to wage a war […] with the entire cost being laid on the resistance and Palestinian society, which reflects a new war philosophy, based on attrition against one side only".

Hussamal-Dajani, a political science professor at theUmmah University in Gaza, says "the Israeli occupation is systematically implementing a plan aimed at destroying the basic foundations of life in the Gaza Strip, which will increase opportunities for it to carry out its plan of forced expulsion in all its forms. This is a continuation of its ethnical cleansing policy, in flagrant violation of international law and international humanitarian law".

He explained that Israeli forces are keen to reduce the chances of direct clashes with Palestinian fighters by relying heavily on air and naval forces and artillery bombardment from outside the zones of engagement, without penetrating deeply into densely populated areas.

According to Dajani, this strategy aims to "prevent the resistance from directly targeting the invading forces and avoiding human losses which could provoke an angry reaction within Israeli society, as has happened in previous rounds".

Israel, he added, is seeking to minimise its human losses while at the same time preventing Palestinian fighters from achieving any victories in the field that would boost the morale of the Palestinian people.

This comes as Israel works "to achieve its central goal of destroying all aspects of life, forcing Palestinians to leave, and emptying Gaza of its inhabitants".

Dajani says this will "enable the occupation to control the Strip's natural resources, most notably gas, in addition to further entrenching its geographic and political hegemony".

This is an edited translation from our Arabic edition. To read the original article, click here.

Translated by Rose Chacko

This article is taken from our Arabic sister publication, Al-Araby Al Jadeed and mirrors the source's original editorial guidelines and reporting policies. Any requests for correction or comment will be forwarded to the original authorsand editors.

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