The ‘Netzarim Corridor’ is not a corridor, it is a nightmare
Israeli troops in the so-called Netzarim Corridor, blocking Palestinian families from returning to northern Gaza along al-Rashid Street, west of the Nuseirat refugee camp on 26 January 2025
Hala Al-Khatib writes in Al Jazeera on 4 Feb 2025:
The so-called “Netzarim Corridor” has been in the news a lot lately, as its “opening” ushered in the much-awaited return of Palestinians to the northern part of the Gaza Strip. Half a million Palestinians headed back to their homes – most finding only rubble. Then on January 29, United States Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff visited the “Netzarim Corridor”, becoming the first US official to step on Gazan soil in more than a decade.
Foreign media has talked at length about this “strategic corridor” or “buffer zone”, as they call it, and its utility for Israeli “military operations” and for “controlling” Palestinians. But for us, the people living on its outskirts, Netzarim has been a living nightmare. It has inflicted unbearable pain and trauma on me and my family and on thousands of other Palestinians.
Netzarim is not a corridor; it is a large land grab carried out through the killing of Palestinian people and the destruction of their homes in Nuseirat and Bureij refugee camps, and the neighbourhoods of al-Mughraqa, az-Zahra, Zeitoun, Juhor ad-Dik, and others. It is not some smart military strategy; it was and continues to be another way of terrorising the people of Gaza.
In the first days of the war, we were unaware that areas in the vicinity of our home were selected for establishing this “corridor”. The air strikes were incessant, demolishing everything in their path – homes, schools, and gardens – without regard for whether people were inside or not. The Israeli army was annihilating everything in its way, whether stone or human.