The Israeli military has been expanding its presence in central Gaza in recent months, fortifying military bases and demolishing Palestinian buildings, according to Israeli officials and satellite images, a move that suggests that it may be preparing to exert long-term control over the area.

Since the early months of the war in Gaza, Israeli forces have occupied a 6-km road, known as the Netzarim corridor, that bisects the enclave, to keep hundreds of thousands of displaced Gazans from returning north. That has slowly grown into an 29-square-kilometre block of territory controlled by Israeli forces, according to the Israeli military and a New York Times analysis of satellite images and video footage.

Over the past three months, soldiers have demolished more than 600 buildings around the road in an apparent attempt to create a buffer zone. They have also rapidly expanded a network of outposts equipped with communications towers and defensive fortifications.

The build-up suggests a shift for Israel, which had largely avoided holding Gazan territory, creating a vacuum that has allowed Hamas to reassert control in some parts of Gaza. The military said that the expansion was for operational reasons.

The expansion has also raised speculation about Israel’s plans for Gaza’s future. Israelis leaders have vowed to maintain security control in Gaza even after the war, without saying clearly what that might entail. Israeli military analysts say the increase in infrastructure along the Netzarim corridor might serve that purpose.

Control of the corridor, which cuts across Gaza from the Israeli border to the Mediterranean Sea, has given Israel the ability to regulate travel across the length of the enclave, keeping hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians in the south. In recent months, the Israeli military has extended its power over territory on either side of the corridor, roughly 7km wide and 7km long, to make it easier for Israeli forces to hold onto the area, Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, an Israeli military spokesman, said.

Some Israeli ministers have said that the military control in Gaza should pave the way for renewed Jewish settlement, although Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has ruled that out for now.

New York Times News Service