“We must not look away”: How Israel’s expansion in Gaza continues — UpFront

[0:04] as the world's attention remains fixated on tehran and washington israel's continuing military [0:10] operations in gaza have failed to make the headlines and yet the killing continues as [0:16] does the territorial expansion since the 2025 ceasefire israeli forces have extended their [0:22] presence beyond the so-called yellow line that's the boundary separating areas under israeli [0:28] control from the rest of gaza and experts have raised fears that the nature of israeli [0:34] operations in the strip could hint at a permanent presence and even potentially a full-on invasion [0:41] here to discuss this is editor of forensic architecture's gaza team ray adams ro far [0:48] thank you very much for joining me on up front welcome thanks for having me thank you so it's [0:55] been six months since the ceasefire in gaza and the israeli army is actually advancing and moving [1:02] beyond the agreed upon truce lines under this ceasefire and in fact the yellow line has shifted [1:09] expanding the areas under direct israeli military control your organization has been documenting the [1:15] movements of the israeli army what are you seeing thanks really what we're seeing is that this line [1:22] which is a line on paper has a physical reality so in the last couple of months while attention has been [1:29] on iran we have seen uh the israeli military erect like up to five kilometer long berms along the line [1:38] of the yellow line to the point where it is now visible as a physical border from space as recently as [1:45] yesterday we are seeing reports that came out of maps shared with aid and humanitarian organizations [1:52] dictating a new orange line now this orange line would extend israel's area of control to cover two [1:59] thirds of gaza's territory and is allegedly there for a so-called coordination zone between the two [2:06] lines in which aid and humanitarian organizations can coordinate with the israeli military what we're [2:13] seeing is that this is not only expanding the area under israel's military control but also [2:18] inherently performative in that same zone in the last two weeks three international aid workers [2:25] palestinian international aid workers have been killed in that very zone dedicated for coordination [2:31] in december israeli defense minister israel cats said that israel would never fully withdraw from gaza [2:39] and last week the director of the organization you work for wrote that there were now 48 israeli outposts [2:48] east of the yellow line and that these no longer have this temporary feature [2:52] uh that was agreed upon under president donald trump's ceasefire but that they look more like [2:58] permanent military infrastructure what does that tell us that tells us that the very future of [3:05] palestinian life in gaza is under threat what we've seen is these 48 new military bases and from satellite [3:13] imagery it's really clear that they're being not only expanded in quantity but fortified with surveillance [3:20] infrastructure multi-layered berms paving and new uh structures constructed within them and this does [3:29] two things it threatens the very concept of return to uh that portion of gaza and it also inflicts certain [3:37] conditions of life upon the 2.1 million palestinians who are concentrated west of the yellow line [3:43] where israel surveils them from atop the ridges that it has uh outposts constructed and continues to [3:51] control and restrict the flow of resources and aid so that gives us a bit more detail and adds layers to [3:57] how this expansion and annexation is happening but how do you actually collect this information how do you [4:05] follow the movement of the israeli army so that you can analyze it in a way that makes sense and gives us [4:12] this uh fuller picture exactly uh forensic architecture we're a group of architects based [4:18] out of the university of goldsmiths and so we use uh spatial analysis and maps to understand and unpick [4:26] the architecture of this settler colonial uh project and what that looks like in gaza is we rely a lot [4:32] on high resolution satellite imagery on which we track and map the presence of tanks the construction of [4:40] earth bombs uh new roads and military outposts this is incredibly important in a context in which uh the [4:47] presence of journalists has been restricted in gaza and palestinian journalists have been routinely [4:52] systematically targeted and killed by the israeli military so in that context this kind of remote [4:58] research becomes important and yet still we see even that under threat so in the past few weeks the [5:03] pentagon has restricted high resolution satellite imagery as it's available to ngos and human rights [5:10] organizations so the very sources we rely on uh to take images above gaza lebanon iran have been [5:18] restricted and yet even still from low resolution satellite imagery the degree of israel's reshaping of [5:25] the landscape of gaza is visible so uh the destruction is so severe that uh it cannot be missed even with [5:33] this limited movement you spoke about surveillance and all of that but the annexation and expansion is [5:38] not just about controlling land is it it's about destroying the very systems that make human existence [5:45] and progress possible your ongoing investigation has found that swathes of agricultural land have been [5:52] destroyed groundwater wells have been damaged or destroyed and israel has directly targeted hospitals so [6:01] from what you have seen can gaza ever recover from this i think this is where the renewed international [6:09] attention even during the ceasefire is so important we must not look away while palestinian life [6:16] continues to be threatened and undermined this is not just a question of what will israel do in the [6:22] future this is a question of degraded conditions of two of life for 2.1 million palestinians in the [6:28] present from satellite imagery we can see that the majority of the population are displaced [6:34] crowded into tent camps pushed up against the coast in the sand dunes of al-mawasi this is not a question [6:42] of of what next it's a question of what we should be doing now and let's just go to lebanon from for [6:48] just a moment because there's been a lot of talk about how the same playbook is playing out israeli [6:54] forces have reportedly taken control of about what five to ten kilometer area along the border villages [7:02] have been destroyed we know that 1.2 million lebanese have been displaced by this war and senior israeli [7:09] ministers have openly talked about annexing more land more territory so this is not over yet your [7:16] thoughts do you see parallels between what is what has happened and is still happening in gaza and what we [7:21] are seeing in lebanon completely what we were seeing in gaza is israel testing a strategy of [7:29] not only destruction for small military incursions and then withdrawal but a policy of systematic [7:35] flattening it tried this in gaza beginning in january 2025 where it depopulated region by region first [7:42] north gaza then rafa then east khan yunis and then eastern gaza city we're seeing the same in southern [7:49] lebanese villages where the military will move in construct a military outpost and destroy everything [7:56] around it moving block by block to flatten everything in its wake under the guise of a [8:01] so-called terrorist threat under which expansion is justified and you say so-called terrorist act in [8:09] inverted commas and there's a kind of language that israel adopts when it continues with these [8:14] territorial expansion and destruction of infrastructure that it is creating buffer zones [8:20] and it creates the impression that this is israel protecting itself from something how is the buffer [8:26] zone conversation being understood i think by the fact that we can see such similar territorial [8:34] arrangements happening not only in gaza but now in lebanon speaks to the idea that this is not a one-off [8:40] response to a military threat but rather a broader campaign of systematic territorial expansion through [8:49] destruction and that this is consistently mobilized we see it in gaza where the yellow line is constantly [8:56] being expanded upon and then that new frontier needs its own protection from threat justifying a [9:02] next wave of expansion and so this repetition of logic across time and space indicates that this is [9:08] not the exception but the rule to israeli conduct ray adams rofar thank you so much for sharing your [9:14] investigations and your insights with us on up front thanks indeed thanks for having me that's our show [9:21] up front we'll be back next week goodbye