What’s the Story of Israeli Maps?

English , Middle East - مشرق وسطٰی , Snippets , / Tuesday, July 15th, 2025

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Dr. Wael Shadid
Since the founding of the occupying state, its military and security doctrine has been fundamentally predicated on an obsession with fear. Fear of the Palestinian inhabitants of the land, of the Arab and Islamic environment, and of the demise of this state. Ben-Gurion, the founder, proposed the idea of moving the war to enemy territory. He also suggested the idea of horizontal settlement expansion to carve out a larger area and fill it with settlers to strengthen defense. This meant changing the geography and demographics of the Palestinian territories, as well as changing the urban architecture of the Palestinian territories. Sharon carried out violent security operations to change the urban architectural design of the Gaza Strip, destroying nearly six thousand homes around the Rafah, Jabalia, and Shati refugee camps and permitting the construction of settlements in the Strip to control it.
The concept of buffer zones was also proposed to achieve the principle of early warning, deterrence, and swift decisive victory. A close examination of what is happening in Lebanon, Syria, and Gaza reveals that what is happening is based on the same principle: buffer zones.
The occupation knows full well that it will not eliminate the resistance militarily in Gaza, and therefore resorts to implementing the principle of buffer zones. Israel presented the maps, which slice off an average of three kilometers along the Gaza Strip’s borders, or 40% of its area, to create a buffer zone. Israel attempted to implement the five-finger concept, which calls for dividing the Strip into five besieged areas to facilitate control and achieve the concept of early warning, especially after what happened on October 7. This meant annexing Beit Hanoun, the Tuffah neighborhoods, Shuja’iyya, Zeitoun neighborhoods, Juhr ad-Dik, al-Qarara, Khuza’a, and Rafah, meaning the displacement of approximately 700,000 Palestinians from their homes, facilitating the construction of what is called “a humanitarian city” in the Rafah area to house approximately 600,000 Palestinians, and severing communication with Egypt. The occupation believes that by doing so, it is besieging the resistance and facilitating the launch of future military operations against it.