Israeli buffer zone tightens Gaza chokehold

A buffer zone surrounding Gaza has been continuously bombed, with a high rate of civilian casualties.

Mohammed Omer Last updated: 01 Aug 2014 15:12



Gaza City - Israel declared a three kilometre buffer zone inside Gaza's borders last week, an area that represents 44 percent of Gaza's territory. Anyone within the zone has been warned by the Israeli military to leave or risk being bombed.

This buffer zone has only exacerbated Gaza's siege. To the east, Palestinians in Gaza are fenced in by Israeli artillery tanks, mortars, cannon shells and snipers. On Gaza's western side, Israeli warships form a blockade and allow only a three-mile fishing zone. To the north resides more military checkpoints and soldiers. To the south, the Egyptian military has closed off the Rafah border.

The buffer zone has tightened the Israeli chokehold around Gaza's small strip of land.
Dogmush believes that the Israeli policy is deliberate to drive people away from Hamas [Emad Nassar/Al Jazeera]

Essam Dogmush, 25, ran a family business renting out apartments in the residential tower where he and his family also lived. He said the building was reduced to rubble immediately after he received a phone call from the Israeli army at midday. The caller on the other end of the line simply ordered him to evacuate the building. Dogmush rushed to each apartment screaming "Israel is going to bomb the building."

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/08/israeli-buffer-zone-tightens-gaza-chokehold-20148183650108236.html