JERUSALEM/ISTANBUL

Israeli soldiers have provided detailed testimonies describing extensive destruction and killings in Gaza during operations to establish a buffer zone along the border, according to a new report by the Israeli group Breaking the Silence.

The report compiles accounts from soldiers involved in enforcing the buffer zone plan. The soldiers and commanders are not named, but their statements are described as deeply disturbing.

The group said: “One of these missions was to create a ‘buffer zone’ inside the Gaza Strip, which in practice meant razing the area to the ground. ... Through widespread, deliberate destruction, the military laid the groundwork for future Israeli control of the area.”

The buffer zone, referred to by soldiers as “the perimeter,” reportedly stretches from Gaza’s northern coast to the southern border with Egypt. It lies entirely within Gaza, beyond Israel’s internationally recognized borders.

According to the group, the previous buffer zone extended about 300 meters (984 feet) into Gaza.

The new zone ranges from 800 m to 1,500 m (2,624-4,921 ft) wide, affecting an area of roughly 55-58 square kilometers (21-22 square miles) -- around 16% of the enclave’s land, including 35% of its agricultural area.

A major in the army’s Northern Gaza Division said: “What they (commanders) said in the operations room in November (2023) was that the war was expected to last a year, ... that we were going to conquer an area that would be cleared of everything.”

A non-commissioned officer from the Armored Corps, discussing operations in January and February 2024, said troops were told there were no civilians in the area: “There is no civilian population. They're terrorists, all of them. … There are no innocents.”

Describing their engagement orders, he said: “We go in and if we identify suspects, we shoot them.”

He also detailed the destruction: “The ‘bear’, the D9 (armored bulldozer), drives and mows down everything in its path. ... Essentially, everything gets mowed down, everything.”

When asked what that included, he replied: “Everything is everything. Everything that’s built, … orchards, cow sheds, chicken coops.”

He described the result as: “Hiroshima. That’s what I’m saying, Hiroshima.”

Another soldier, a first sergeant in Reserve Battalion 5, said their main task in Khuza’ah, Khan Younis, between December 2023 and January 2024 was demolition: “I’m talking up to hundreds of structure units, … the destruction is total.”

He explained that the Gaza Division mapped destruction zones using colors: “Green means more than 80% of buildings were taken down -- residential buildings, greenhouses, sheds, factories, … it needs to be flat.”

A first sergeant in the Combat Engineering Corps who served in northern Gaza in November 2023 said: “We take down houses, ... knock it down, so there’s absolutely nothing left, a pile of rubble.”

He described demolition assignments as daily tasks: “You get up in the morning, get the locations, … every day, except if we run out of explosives.”

He said platoons could demolish 40-50 houses per week: “It was a matter of half an hour per house.”

A reserve artillery officer said commanders had wide discretion in targeting: “There is no system of accountability in general. Anyone who crosses a certain line, that we have defined, is considered a threat and is sentenced to death.”

The Israeli army resumed its assault on Gaza on March 18, killing nearly 1,400 people and injuring over 3,400 since then. The offensive shattered a ceasefire and prisoner swap deal reached in January.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently vowed to intensify the attacks as part of a broader plan aligned with US President Donald Trump’s proposal to forcibly displace Palestinians from Gaza.

More than 50,700 Palestinians have been killed in the enclave since October 2023, most of them women and children.

The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants last November for Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel is also facing a genocide case at the International Court of Justice.