Barrier around the Gaza Strip

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Map of the Gaza Strip as of December 2012.

The Israeli barrier around the Gaza Strip runs along the ceasefire line of the 1949 Israeli War of Independence between the Gaza Strip and Israel . The barrier has three passages: Erez , the Kerem Shalom , which is mainly designed for the transport of goods to Israel, and Rafah in the direction of Egypt.

Goal setting

Israel justified the construction of the plant with the defense against the infiltration of terrorists and suicide bombers from the Gaza Strip into the western Negev as well as the more difficult smuggling from Egypt. Human rights organizations have accused Israel of complicating the situation for commuters living in the Gaza Strip but working outside of the building .

Between 1994 and 2004, a Palestinian suicide bomber overcame the facilities and carried out an attack in Ashdod on March 14, 2004.

Due to the barrier, the Palestinian militants changed their tactics, meanwhile they mainly fire mortar shells and Qassam rockets over the facilities, and tunnels are also being dug to bypass them. As a result, Israel modernized its border facilities in order to also prevent the construction of tunnels.

properties

Former barrier (in 2005) near the Karni crossing

The 52 kilometer long facility was built in 1994 under the Israeli Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin . It mainly consists of a fence with guards, sensors and buffer zones.

On the side of the fence facing away from Israel, Israel claims an observation zone between 100 and 300 meters wide, which farmers can enter on foot. The danger zone in front of it extends from 1000 to 1500 m.

A reinforced concrete wall was erected along the Egyptian border near Rafah on the Philadelphi Route , equipped with numerous armed guards. In the past there had often been clashes between members of the Israeli armed forces and Palestinians . The construction of the fortification was supposed to protect the Israeli soldiers from fire and stop the smuggling of weapons between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. However, this border has been under Egyptian control since 2005.

From spring 2019 to the end of 2021, the barrier was extensively expanded and modernized (see section history) .

Transitions

The barrier is complete and only allows passage at designated crossings. After Israel these were Erez , Nahal Oz (for fuel), Sufa , Kissufim , the Karni checkpoint , which is mainly designed for the transport of goods, and the Rafah crossing to Egypt . After the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, the Kissufim crossing was closed in August 2005. The Sufa crossing followed in September 2008, but it was opened again in March and April 2011. Nahal Oz was closed in January 2010 and Karni in March 2011. The Kerem Shalom crossing remained for the supply of the Gaza Strip. The Erez crossing is designed for people only. Until December 2012, this also applied to the Rafah transition.

According to the UN Emergency Aid Coordinator , passenger traffic to and from Gaza has decreased from 521,277 people in 2004 to 85,453 people in 2014. The number of border crossings from and to Egypt decreased from 419,899 people in 2012 to 97,690 in 2014 due to the restrictive measures on the part of the country Egypt, which came into force in 2013 shortly after As-Sisi came to power.

story

In the Declaration of Principles on Temporary Self-Government of September 13, 1993, it was also agreed that Israel would retain control of the air, land borders and territorial waters of the Gaza Strip.

Construction of the 60 kilometer (37 mile) barrier began in 1994. In the interim agreement of September 24, 1995, it was agreed that the security fence would be accepted by the Palestinian Authority and would not constitute a definition of a border.

The security fence was completed in 1996. It was repaired between December 2000 and June 2001 during the 2nd Intifada , and a one kilometer wide buffer zone was added and observation posts were set up.

In August 2017, it was decided to add an underground wall to the barrier by 2019, reaching up to 40 meters into the ground: the 60-kilometer-long structure, to which sensors are attached that report if the concrete is damaged or if the nearby excavation is carried out is in response to Hamas' continued tunneling . Its aim is to minimize the threat to the Israeli towns near the Gaza Strip by preventing terrorists from entering Israeli territory underground. The costs amount to almost 40 million euros per kilometer. Hamas announced that the underground wall would "not limit the ability to resist" and that Hamas would "find solutions to circumvent it."

In May 2018, the construction of a sea barrier began to prevent intrusion from the Mediterranean. The barrier is created on the northern border of the Gaza Strip and consists of three components: an underwater level, which is surmounted by a layer of stone breakwaters and a barbed wire fence on the ridge. The barrier should also be surrounded by a fortified fence.

The Israeli Defense Ministry announced the expansion and modernization of the barrier on February 3, 2019. Since its completion at the beginning of December 2021, the 65-kilometer high-tech fence has completely enclosed the Gaza Strip. In addition to cameras and radar systems, the six-meter-high border fence also includes underground sensors for detecting tunnels and underwater devices where the fence runs into the sea. The barrier cost around 3.5 billion shekels (the equivalent of around one billion euros).

attacks

Palestinian terrorists carried out many attacks on the barrier.

For stops on the transitions:

For attacks on the Philadelphi Passage:

Protests on the Gaza border, 2018

Gaza Strip and the number of Palestinian victims of the protests, now obsolete as of May 31, 2018

On March 30, 2018, protests began near the barrier, which, according to the UN Human Rights Commission , were initiated by Ahmed Artema on Facebook as peaceful demonstrations. Five camps were set up for this period. About 30,000 Palestinians took part on the first day of the march of the returnees . The second major protest took place on April 6, 2018, as the day of the tire, with around 20,000 participants. Larger protests with initially more than 10,000 participants took place on the following Fridays.

Casualty numbers

The UN Human Rights Commission report lists 189 fatalities on the Palestinian side, almost all of them killed by live ammunition, including 35 children, 2 journalists and 3 health workers, with the case of 21-year-old rescue worker Rouzan al-Najjar receiving worldwide media coverage .

6106 Palestinians were injured by live ammunition, 1576 by fragments of bullets, 438 by rubber-coated metal bullets and 1084 by tear gas containers. Including tear gas injuries, the UN Human Rights Council estimates the total number of injuries to be 23,313. Of the injuries, 122 were amputations, including 22 children. The UN report summarizes that more people lost limbs in the demonstrations on the Gaza border in 2018 than in the entire Gaza war of 2014. On the Israeli side there were 4 injured and no deaths.

Whether the death of the 8-month-old Layla Al-Ghandour, who had caused worldwide horror, was caused by tear gas or whether independent damage to her health had caused her death, the report could not assess as clear.

The report first names 11-year-old Yasser Abu Naja as the youngest victims of the protests, who hid behind a barrel with a friend on June 29, 2018 and shouted provocative slogans over the border fence. He was then killed by a sniper in the Israeli army with supersonic ammunition and shot in the head. The 11-year-old Majdi al-Satari was killed in the same way, with a shot in the head, on July 27. The commission found that neither of the children posed a threat to the ISF snipers on the other side of the border fence.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the report shows "new heights of hypocrisy and lies" and is the result of "obsessive hatred against Israel."

UN General Assembly resolution ES-10 / L.23

On June 13, 2018, the UN General Assembly passed resolution ES-10 / L.23 with 120 votes in favor, 8 against, 45 abstentions and 20 absenteeism. The UN resolution condemned the "excessive, disproportionate and undifferentiated use of force by Israeli forces against Palestinian civilians in the occupied territories, including East Jerusalem and in particular the Gaza Strip." To refrain from acts that violate Article 4 of the Geneva Conventions . The one-sidedness of the resolution at the expense of Israel was criticized. Israel invokes its right to self-defense and to prevent illegal border crossings.

The US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki R. Haley , who had voted against the resolution with the ambassadors of Israel, Australia, Togo and four Pacific island states, said that demonstrations would also take place in Nicaragua, Iran and Myanmar at the same time, the UN General Assembly dedicates "its valuable time to the situation in Gaza" and that it is "a preferred political sport" to attack Israel. Haley contested that Hamas fired hundreds of rockets into Israeli territory from Gaza.

Reactions

On February 28, 2019, the UN Human Rights Council presented its investigation report into the protests in Gaza and the reactions of the Israeli side. The chairman, Santiago Canton, said: "Some of the human rights violations may have been war crimes or crimes against humanity, which Israel needs to investigate immediately."

The Nuremberg Human Rights Center announced the results in German: “The commission of inquiry recognizes that defending Israeli soldiers and civilians to protect their lives is just as much a legitimate goal of criminal prosecution as that of the border fence and Israeli territory against damage and vandalism. However, the commission of inquiry emphasizes that the cited activities of Palestinian demonstrators are not reason enough for the use of deadly force according to the paradigm of criminal prosecution, because the persons defined as 'key rioters and instigators' are not an immediate threat to life just because of the above-mentioned actions represented their counterparts by neither having to be armed nor attacking the Israeli armed forces. For these reasons, the Commission of Inquiry speaks of arbitrary deprivation of life due to the vague definitions that the Israeli armed forces used as the basis for their use of lethal force. This did not act according to the principle that the use of lethal force should only serve as an actual last resort to save life, and that arbitrary aiming at a crowd is never allowed. "

Israel's Foreign Minister Israel Katz called the report "hostile, hypocritical and one-sided" and referred to Israel's right to self-defense. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also affirmed Israel's right to self-defense.

criticism

The barrier around the Gaza Strip is less controversial internationally than the Israeli barriers in the West Bank because it runs along the Green Line and does not deviate significantly from the 1948 armistice line as there.

However, there is criticism of the 200 to 300 meter wide security zone unilaterally imposed by Israel, which cannot be entered. This is intended to detect potential attackers at an early stage when they approach the security fence, which, unlike the other borders of Israel, is only simple and is located directly on the patrol road. As a result, 62.6 km² of mostly agricultural land in the Gaza Strip is unusable. Between September 11, 2005 (the withdrawal of the Israelis) and the end of 2010, the army killed 177 Palestinians in this zone, including at least 38 civilians. At the beginning of 2010 it was announced for the first time by means of an official leaflet that entering the zone at risk of death was forbidden. On April 28, 2010, an army spokesman declared the zone a “combat zone” when demonstrations broke out against it, during which fire had been opened on the unarmed. These measures and the number of deaths aroused the fear in human rights organizations that soldiers at this border would have a shooting order as on the Berlin Wall , which is vehemently rejected by the army leadership. In any case, the zone is not clearly marked as required, which is why farmers working there came under fire over and over again. According to UN data, the zone comprises 17% of the total area and 35% of the agricultural area and affects 113,000 residents.

The case of the 13-year-old school girl Iman Darweesh Al Hams , who was shot 17 times near a checkpoint on the Philadelphi Route, by a captain of the Israeli army caused a particularly sensation . A military court dismissed the captain's complaint.

Measures by Egypt

Egypt also took similar steps along the border with the Gaza Strip and in 2008 replaced sections of the barbed wire barriers on the border with a 3 meter high barrier. In order to prevent Hamas from smuggling through branched tunnel systems, Egypt has also been building a steel underground wall around 10 kilometers long, up to 30 meters deep, since 2009.

Since February 2014, Egypt has been setting up a 300 to 500 meter wide security strip on the border with the Gaza Strip in order to prevent smuggling and the movement of militant Palestinian-Arab extremists more effectively. In a first step, 820 houses in which 1,165 families lived were demolished on the Egyptian side of Rafah. The plan is to expand this buffer zone to around five kilometers, which means the complete demolition of Rafah in Egypt and the relocation of its 75,000 inhabitants.

See also

Web links

Commons : Israeli barriers around the Gaza Strip  - image collection

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Daniel B. Barasch, Lala R. Qadir: Overcoming Barriers: US National Security Interests and the West Bank Separation Barrier . S. 20 (English).
  2. ↑ a b c Israel: complete 65-kilometer barrier to the Gaza Strip . In: The mirror . December 7, 2021, ISSN  2195-1349 ( spiegel.de [accessed December 8, 2021]).
  3. ↑ UN-OCHA, Gaza Strip Access and Closure December 2012. ( Memento of the original from August 11, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 18.8 MB) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ochaopt.org
  4. ↑ Gaza, a region in the offside, Part 2 (German)
  5. ↑ Jerusalem Center of Public Affairs , accessed August 7, 2018
  6. ↑ Israelnetz.de of October 13, 2017: Wall against Terror
  7. ↑ Israel: A high-tech wall that extends 40 meters into the ground . In: THE WORLD . October 17, 2017 ( welt.de [accessed April 3, 2020]).
  8. ↑ Israel builds sea barrier to protect against terrorism In: Israelnetz.de , May 28, 2018, accessed on June 3, 2018.
  9. ↑ Protection from Hamas - Israel builds a border through the sea In: FAZ-net, May 27, 2018, accessed on April 7, 2020.
  10. ↑ Israel builds borders through the sea. RTL, May 30, 2018, accessed on April 7, 2020 .
  11. ↑ Israel builds a new barrier on the Gaza border. In: orf.at . February 3, 2019, accessed February 3, 2019 .
  12. ↑ United Nations Human Rights Council , "Report of the independent international commission of inquiry on the protests in the Occupied Palestinian Territory", inserted by UN Resolution S-28/1, pdf, February 25, 2019, p. 186 f .: "The Commission has verified that the map in question originated from a post on the Facebook page, 'The Great March of Return', which was setup in January 2018 by the activist, Ahmed Abu Artema (see the above section on the origins of the demonstrations). (...) In these posts, the Commission found no calls for violence or to cause harm to Israeli civilians, and in earlier posts the page consistently called for peaceful assembly. (...) The ISF and other organizations also drew an association between this Facebook post and some social media posts by Palestinians who called for explicit violence once in Israeli villages. The Commission reviewed the separate posts inciting violence, but found that the individuals who made these posts were not affiliated with the Great March of Return organizers. "
  13. ↑ Army: Hamas is responsible In: Israelnetz.de , April 9, 2018, accessed on August 7, 2018.
  14. ↑ Four dead in violence in the border region In: Israelnetz.de , April 20, 2018, accessed on August 8, 2018.
  15. ↑ United Nations Human Rights Council , "Report of the independent international commission of inquiry on the protests in the Occupied Palestinian Territory", inserted by UN Resolution S-28/1, pdf, February 25, 2019, p. 104 et seq. a ; taz , UN Council fears "war crimes", February 28, 2019 .
  16. ↑ New York Times , “A Woman Dedicated to Saving Lives Loses Hers in Gaza Violence,” June 2, 2018 ; NBC News , "Protests resume after Palestinian paramedic's Gaza funeral," June 1, 2018 ; The Guardian , "Mother of shot Gaza medic: 'She thought the white coat would protect her", June 8, 2018 ; Times of Israel , “UN official condemns 'reprehensible' killing of Gaza medic”, June 3, 2018 ; Le Monde , “Emotion à Gaza à la suite de la mort d'une infirmière, tuée par l'armée israélienne”, June 3, 2018 ; Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , “Mourning for a paramedic who was shot”, June 3, 2018 ; Bild (newspaper) , “Palestinian medic shot dead during protests,” June 3, 2018 ; Neue Zürcher Zeitung , “Stolen Hope for Peace in Gaza”, June 4, 2018 ; O Globo , “Disparo de soldados israelenses mata voluntária palestina na Faixa de Gaza”, June 1, 2018 ; Al Jazeera , "Israeli forces 'deliberately killed' Palestinian paramedic Razan," June 18, 2018 ; Haaretz , “Anonymous Snipers and a Lethal Verdict,” June 5, 2018 ; +972 Magazine , Orly Noy, “In Memory of Razan al-Najjar,” June 3, 2018 ; Middle East Monitor , "Who killed Razan al-Najjar?", June 2, 2018 : "The death of the 21-year-old volunteer paramedic sent shockwaves around the world, not least because Razan had become an iconic symbol before she was shot dead. "
  17. ↑ United Nations Human Rights Council , “Report of the independent international commission of inquiry on the protests in the Occupied Palestinian Territory”, inserted by UN Resolution S-28/1, pdf, February 25, 2019, p. 104 f. US 163 ; Neue Zürcher Zeitung , “The UN and Israel in the dispute over Gaza”, February 28, 2019 : “According to the commission, Israeli snipers shot at more than 6000 unarmed demonstrators at the border fence by the end of 2018. 189 of them were killed, according to the information, including 35 minors. Three were identified by colored vests as paramedics, two as journalists. Limbs should have been amputated in 122 people. The UN Commission states that as long as it is not about legitimate self-defense, it is a war crime to target civilians who are not involved in combat operations ”;
  18. ↑ United Nations Human Rights Council , "Report of the independent international commission of inquiry on the protests in the Occupied Palestinian Territory", inserted by UN Resolution S-28/1, pdf, February 25, 2019, p. 196 f .: "On May 14, the death of an 8-month-old baby, Layla Al-Ghandour, prompted global outcry about the ISF's indiscriminate tactics against demonstrators. Initial reports indicated that Layla had died after inhaling ISF tear gas at the demonstration site east of Gaza City "; Süddeutsche Zeitung , "There will be a few more dead", May 16, 2018 .
  19. ↑ United Nations Human Rights Council , “Report of the independent international commission of inquiry on the protests in the Occupied Palestinian Territory”, inserted by UN Resolution S-28/1, pdf, February 25, 2019, pp. 145 f .
  20. ↑ Neue Zürcher Zeitung , “The UN and Israel in the dispute over Gaza”, February 28, 2019 .
  21. ↑ United Nations, Meetings Coverage and Press Releases , June 13, 2018 : "In an emergency meeting, the General Assembly today adopted a resolution deploring the use of excessive, disproportionate and indiscriminate force by Israeli forces against Palestinian civilians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and particularly the Gaza Strip. By the text titled “Protection of the Palestinian civilian population” - adopted by a vote of 120 in favor to 8 against with 45 abstentions - the Assembly demanded that Israel refrain from such actions and fully abide by its legal obligations under the Fourth Geneva Convention relating to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of August 12, 1949 “; Geneva Conventions, August 12, 1949, Article 4 .
  22. ↑ United Nations: General Assembly condemns Israel . In: FAZ.NET . June 14, 2018, ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed April 7, 2020]).
  23. ↑ UN condemns Israel for violence in the Gaza Strip. June 14, 2018, accessed April 7, 2020 .
  24. ↑ United Nations, Meetings Coverage and Press Releases , June 13, 2018 .
  25. ↑ United Nations Human Rights Council , “Report of the independent international commission of inquiry on the protests in the Occupied Palestinian Territory”, inserted by UN Resolution S-28/1, pdf ; Deutsche Welle , “UN Commission sees signs of 'war crimes' by Israel” February 28, 2019 ; Die Welt , "UN Commission sees evidence of 'war crimes' by Israel against Palestinians"; February 28, 2019 ; taz , "UN Council fears" war crimes ", February 28, 2019 :" Some of the human rights violations could have been war crimes or crimes against humanity, which Israel must investigate immediately, "said the chairman of the investigative commission Santiago Canton".
  26. ↑ Nuremberg Human Rights Center , “Human Rights Violations in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict”, October 22, 2019 .
  27. ↑ Deutsche Welle , "UN Commission sees signs of Israel's 'war crimes'", February 28, 2019 .
  28. ↑ Army stops intruders from the Gaza Strip In: Israelnetz.de , April 30, 2018, accessed August 8, 2018.
  29. ^ No-go zones near Gaza Strip B'Tselem
  30. ↑ UN report ( Memento from May 15, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  31. ↑ BBC , "Gaza girl death officer acquitted" November 15, 2005 .
  32. ↑ Egypt builds a wall on the border with the Gaza Strip (tagesschau.de archive)
  33. ↑  ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) sueddeutsche.de@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.sueddeutsche.de
  34. ↑ Egypt builds an underground metal wall in the Gaza Strip. In: derStandard.at. December 10, 2009. Retrieved December 9, 2017 .
  35. ^ Report: Egypt working to create buffer zone around Gaza border
  36. ↑ Gil Yaron: Egypt clears smugglers' city to the Gaza Strip. In: Die Welt from January 15, 2015.