Israel planning to establish permanent military outposts in Gaza, officer reveals

Israel’s armed forces are planning to establish permanent military outposts in the Gaza Strip, in what is the latest revelation of the besieged enclave’s potential post-war future.

According to a report by London-based news outlet, Middle East Eye, an anonymous Israeli military officer informed it that “We have received orders to determine the locations of permanent army stations within Gaza”.

Until now, the order to construct the military facilities was reportedly given verbally rather than officially or on paper, as the “defence ministry and the army informally assigned a small number of officers for this purpose”.

Over the past three and a half months of Israel’s ongoing bombardment and invasion of Gaza, Tel Aviv and Occupation authorities have been attempting to formulate the Strip’s future and governance after the war.

Read: Talking about the future of Gaza is based on an unrealistic assumption

There have been a variety of potential and contradictory outcomes revealed since, including the installation of a compliant Arab authority – either Palestinian through the Palestinian Authority (PA) or a combined force of surrounding Arab states – or the exodus of all Palestinians from Gaza into Egypt’s Sinai desert or a buffer zone or, more recently, the creation of a floating island off the Gazan coast for the Palestinian population.

Whichever outcome is decided, “Netanyahu and his far-right war cabinet are not planning to withdraw from Gaza”, the officer clarified.

This latest revelation of the establishment of military outposts in the Strip poses a similarity to the situation in the West Bank, where the Israeli Occupation enforces checkpoints and restrictions for Palestinians while giving soldiers and illegal Jewish settlers free rein.

Yet, according to the Israeli officer, the situation in the future Occupied Gaza Strip could be even worse than that. “This model is a more militarised version of the West Bank”, he said. “I have served in the West Bank. Gaza will not be like that place, there will be more frequent military stations and more soldiers.”

Read: Hamas won’t allow Israel or its supporters to interfere in Gaza’s future