Israel has doubled its foothold in the Gaza Strip, with its military now controlling more than 50% of the enclave since restarting the war against Hamas last month. 

The military buffer zone has expanded nearly two miles all around the border in a swift incursion, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested would be permanent even after Hamas is defeated. 

The Israel Defense Forces has also allegedly razed all the homes, farmland and infrastructure in the area to the point where the land is no longer habitable, exacerbating the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, Israeli soldiers and human rights advocates said. 

“They destroyed everything they could, they shot everything that looks functioning … (the Palestinians) will have nothing to come back, they will not come back, never,” one Israeli soldier said of the demolition. 

The soldier served with a tank squad guarding the demolition teams as they turned the border surrounding Gaza into a veritable wasteland, with four other troops speaking out about the destruction in a report released Monday by Breaking The Silence, an anti-occupation veterans group.    

The troops allege that the IDF ordered their soldiers to destroy all farmland, irrigation pipes, crops, trees and more buildings than they could count so Hamas would have nowhere to hide. 

The report came as the IDF struck a media tent outside the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis — killing two people, including local reporter Yousef al-Faqawi — according to his outlet, Palestine Today. 

It marked the second strike against the hospital in three weeks, with the attack aimed at Hassan Eslaiah, an alleged member of Hamas who once served as an Associated Press freelancer. 

Hospital officials said Eslaiah was one of six journalists injured in the strike, which caused yet another blaze at the hospital, which also serves as a shelter.

When the war began after Hamas’ deadly attack on Oct. 7, 2023, Israel took control of more than half a mile of land around the border, according to the group. 

Since ending the cease-fire in mid-March, the incursion has pushed as deep as nearly two miles in some locations, with the IDF in control of the Netzarim Corridor that divides Gaza in two. 

Along with marking the land for demolition, the IDF allegedly marked the buffers as a “kill zone,” calling on its troops to fire at anyone who came within 500 meters of the new border, including women and children. 

The IDF defended the demolition in Gaza as an act to ensure that the Oct. 7 terror attack never happens again. 

The army maintains that it has issued evacuation orders for the destroyed land and that all its actions abide by international law. 

Israel’s expanded incursion into Gaza comes after the IDF announced plans to divide Gaza even further into three parts, with Israeli troops seeking to create a new corridor isolating the southern hub of Rafah. 

Netanyahu said the expanded incursion is aimed at applying maximum pressure against Hamas to release the remaining 59 hostages in Gaza, 24 of whom are believed to still be alive. 

The prime minister, who has not tapped any other entity to take control of Gaza despite push from global leaders, has said Israel would take control of security in the territory once Hamas is defeated.  

Netanyahu also signaled that Israel would implement President Trump’s controversial call to remove Palestinians out of Gaza under a “voluntary emigration” plan. 

The move has been panned by human rights groups as an attempt at “ethnic cleansing,” with no other nation expressing willingness to take on 2 million refugees. 

With Post wires