What Is the Netzarim Corridor?
What Is the Netzarim Corridor?
The Netzarim corridor was manned by Israeli soldiers for most of the 15-month campaign, restricting the movement of the Palestinian people in the north. This zone was one of the deadliest zones in the Gaza Strip with arbitrary murder and detention of people trying to move back and forth from north to south.
The zone was used as a control zone splitting the north from the south acting as a buffer before and during the siege of Northern Gaza Strip it was also aptly named a “kill zone” for Israeli troops who reportedly competed among each other to see who could kill the most Palestinians.
Throughout the campaign, we witnessed many videos come from this area of people being shot at and killed and others being detained, never to be seen again. During this the Israeli’s labelled parts of this zone as a “no go zone” for Palestinians further restricting the movement of people within their own communities and ultimately leading to the deaths of many people.
Two main access points were used to control the passage of movement from north to south at the Salah al-Din Road and Al-Rashid coastal highway many lost their lives here a lot of it documented in video form some of which found its way to social media.
A blatant disregard for humanitarian law and norms of war. During the siege of the North Gaza Strip food and aid supplies were further restricted leading to but a trickle if any aid and supplies getting to the people their including inside the medical facilities.
Netzarim was the name of the illegal settlement in the Gaza Strip that was taken back after 2005. This settlement had remained in the Gaza Strip from the end of the 1967 “6-day war” that set the stage for the coming century inside Palestine.
As stated by Israeli soldiers and commanders themselves in documented statements as reported by Haaretz this area was a “kill zone” and all was game.
"Every woman is a scout, or a man in disguise ... Anyone on a bicycle could be killed, claiming cyclists were terrorists' collaborators,"
"The line appears on no map and exists in no official military order. While senior Israel Defense Forces officials might deny its existence, in the heart of the Gaza Strip, north of the Netzarim corridor, nothing is more real," Haaretz report
This restriction was part of the wider policies of this campaign in the dislodging and clearing out the north of the Gaza Strip, systematically targeting critical infrastructure including sieges on the medical facilities and hospitals, utilizing the worn-out old narrative of fighting “terrorism” with the full support of the US and its allies.
"The division commander designated this area as a 'kill zone.' Anyone who enters is shot,"
“If Division 99 kills 150 (Palestinians), the next unit aims for 200.” Haaretz report
Who Are the Firms Going into Gaza?
Shortly after the signing of the agreement between Hamas and Israel, the announcement that private “security” firms were taking up the role of "security” at the Netzarim corridor to northern Gaza came.
It must be noted that Israel and the US had been consulting firms many months prior to the agreement one of those was the consultant firm Orbis which helped to piece together PMC groups and the overarching plan for the Netzarim corridor. The Orbis group told Axios that “it had no plans to be part of other operations in Gaza”.
The “security” firms are going to be part of an “international consortium” that was established with the signing of the agreement in Gaza; however, these companies have been in the wings for a while, with Israel seeking consultation with these firms many months prior to their selection.
These firms will be tasked with the searching of vehicles and persons in case of the transfer of “weaponry” from North to South of the Gaza Strip. One of the main “security” firms to be used is the notorious Academi, formerly known as Xe formerly Blackwater.
You may have heard the name before, Blackwater was notorious for its crimes during the occupation of Afghanistan. A great book touching on this group is the book ‘Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army’ by Jeremy Scahill. Academi formerly Blackwater was infamous for its escapades in Afghanistan.
One of the documented crimes was the murder of innocent civilians in Nasour Square where a contingent of the firm drove their vehicles into the center and fired on civilians in cars and on foot ending in the deaths of 17 people injuring 20 others.
Another incident was in the notorious Bagram facilities near Bagram airbase where prisoners were systematically tortured and humiliated while in US custody leading to the deaths of two of them.
This group was involved in many different crimes a lot of them documented, some of those who perpetrated the crimes were also charged but later pardoned by the now President Donald Trump in his first term of office.
Only one of the reported three “security firms” being sent into the Gaza Strip to man the transit through the Netzarim zone. In 2003 three US contractors were killed in Gaza by Hamas, though some think they may be tolerated today no matter the case it's another marker in history as these firms take another foothold in Gaza for the first time in well over a decade. Officially at least.
It has been widely documented however in Israels use of foreign mercenaries which prompted the UN to setup a working group to form framework around the deployment and usage of these firms in the form of tools of occupation or being deployed into a battlefield. Here you can find the United Nations working group on the use of Mercenaries, insights into the role of PMC’s in “violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination" link to working groups report.
VIDEO Leader of Academi aka Blackwater has plans for Gaza:
Joining the US Private Military Contractors (PMC’s) will be a contingent of Egyptian Special Forces units who have trained in “counter terror” operations for several months and most probably but not yet confirmed Jordanian forces.
It was reported to have been on the insistence of Israel that a private firm take over and be included in the final agreement.
Another Private Military Firm that is reported to take up positions in Gaza is the United States, Carolina based UG securities, this firm also had offices in London but were later dissolved in 2014. These firms have been recruiting people from across the board including those coming from West Asia.
This firm has also reportedly confirmed they have people on the ground now but did not say how many were there. The deal is to take place over the space of 60-days in three phases how this will go is yet to be seen as focus retrains on the West Bank. Throughout all the past peace efforts it must be noted that Israel failed to follow through on latter stages of these agreements.
Netanyahu and his cohorts each time through the negotiations at each key moment caused their collapse. If Joe Biden and Netanyahu wanted to the situation could have been solved back after the 7th of October as Hamas had already provided an Olive branch and did so numerous times through the genocidal violence waged on the Gaza Strip.
Will this be different?
International Criminal Court, International Criminal Court of Justice & the Disregard of International law
According to Israel Hayom, an Israeli media outlet, it stated that “legal snags” had stopped the use of these groups back in November due to being unable to define them in terms of the definition of “occupation” under international law.
These “snags,” however, did not stop Israel’s use of mercenaries in the Gaza Strip through their campaign. Or their use even prior to the launching of the most recent Gaza campaign.
“The absence of a clear, unambiguous and comprehensive legal definition of a mercenary”13 Working Group on the use of mercenaries
It seems that these hurdles have been overcome at least for now in order to define mercenaries as being “legitimate” occupation forces to take up “security” tasks as defined under international law.
As if international law mattered to these people after neglecting the will of the majority of the members and participants of the United Nations and the calls from many around the globe to cease the violence. The US and Israel both neglected the calls from the highest international courts to take every precaution to stop genocide.
The last US representative to the UN, Linda Thomas Greenfield, was loud in her support for warrants and rulings found against President Putin and other Russian officials even with lack of evidence of war crimes or other violations compared with the US and Greenfield's full rebuke of the scrutiny against Israel.
This typified the hypocrisy of the whole thing, the US One of the biggest hegemons the world has seen again has been seen for what it is: an aggressor, a duplicitous player, a hypocrite on the world stage.
While at the same time doing more damage to the institutions that uphold the status quo and the “western rules-based order” than any adversary could hope to achieve. The people in Palestine have thrown a stick in the spokes of the wheel of the empire, and they don’t like it.
"There should be more in the dock, in my view. And it's taking ages. This is because the political pressure on the international justice system is extreme.
"And we see pressure on the prosecutor, pressure on the judges. Israel is trying to obstruct it by moving exceptions against the independence of the judges. And the US is making pressure through open threats," United Nations special rapporteur Francesca Albanese
Instead, an offensive was launched against the courts, with the US targeting individuals in them with the threat of sanction. This truly shows the shambolic nature of the "Western Rules Based Order” where the world's highest courts and institutions supposed to stop genocide and war crimes have been brought to their knees. It is also a sign of the disdain that the US holds for those dissenting voices even when those voices are allies.
“It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal.” Henry Kissinger
Of course, this has been a common theme over the past century but this even for those who are more inclined to follow their establishments narrative this made it so glaring as it could not be ignored.
Sure many people still ignore the situation some will deny it and others will outright defend it but the facts of the matter is this genocide will be recorded as such in the history books the warrants for the arrests of Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant should only be the beginning this was a systematic effort not just in recent past but over consecutive governments over the span of decades with the anti-Palestinian policies the two tier systems the pogroms the development of the illegal settlements...
“The Israeli government [has] demonstrated a clear pattern of negligent targeting along this campaign, [as well as] indifference and callousness to civilian harm and suffering and a disregard for international law,” Wes Bryant, a US Air Force master sergeant
All laws and norms were thrown out the window for 15 months. The Cradle has covered these same mercenary groups and Israel’s use of them, talking about the recruitment process of the western intelligence agencies and NGOs to recruit willing participants across the Muslim world to come fight in Gaza on behalf of Israel. This also touches on the German government's exploitation of asylum seekers coming from the region.
During the genocidal campaign, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, along with other EU officials, made their way to Egypt with a package of €7.4B in economic aid, including approved loans from the International Monetary Fund.
This was coincidentally months before Israel would trample all over the agreement signed between Egypt and Israel in the Camp David Accords in 1978, leading to Egypt’s formal recognition of Israel.
In Israel’s moving into Rafah, they had openly violated this agreement with the movement of troops and armoured vehicles as well as the conducting of airstrikes on the crossing several times throughout the campaign in Gaza and then the eventual occupation of the Rafah Crossing.
ß Only United Nations forces and civil police equipped with light weapons to perform normal police functions will be stationed within an area lying west of the international border and the Gulf of Aqaba, varying in width from 20 km. (12 miles) to 40 km. (24 miles).
ß in the area within 3 km. (1.8 miles) east of the international border, there will be limited Israeli military forces not to exceed four infantry battalions and United Nations observers.
ß Border patrol units not to exceed three battalions will supplement the civil police in maintaining order in the area not included above.
Some analysts suggested that this could possibly pull Egypt into the situation, but with the backhanders from Europe, the IMF loans, and the US’s continued support and propping up of Egypt, it meant it remained one hundred percent loyal to Western interests.
Failure of Empire Against a People's Fight for Liberation. The Standard of Resistance Against Imperialism & Colonialism Again Has Been Set. Palestine Lives.
The resistance groups continued their fight, holding one of the most advanced fighting forces in the region to a stalemate with the full backing of the world's foremost imperialist power, the United States, along with its allies in the collective West.
It’s without a doubt that the fighting and the campaign waged by the resistance will be studied for many years to come in the war colleges in the universities. The campaign waged against one of the most advanced fighting forces, arguably on the globe, backed by the premier imperialist power on the globe, was still held to a stalemate. This reflects the people's determination in a fight against an illegal occupation and generations of repression.
As will Israel's use of artificial intelligence in its targeting acquisition program through Lavender, its collection of data through the use of Gospel, and the implementation of AI into the command structure. The expansive destruction of the use of food as a weapon the targeting of health staff, the sieges and destruction of hospitals and medical facilities, and the mass murders and flour massacre One example of another was the killing of over a hundred or more people at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital.
This was a serious miscalculation on behalf of Israel failing to realize that this would or could lead to such a loss in influence over certain demographics and especially over the narrative in the West.
The once streamlined propaganda machine of the colonial entity has been shattered, as has the myth of the “unbeatable” army. On the world stage, the continued veto of the permanent member of the UN on resolutions, especially to do with Palestine, including one on Palestine's bid to become a full member of the United Nations.
A lot of those resolutions pertained to Israel's violence and use of food as a weapon against the people of Gaza. The US is fully culpable for its part in this genocide, and its fighting against the international courts highlights the US’s continued belief in its “exceptionalism” on the world stage. In an ever-growing multipolar world, the US and the West continue to lash out, manifesting in many forms. Some of these have been through conflict and war; others through economic coercion and exploitation.
And in this lies a core issue: Israel, after October 7th, 2023, tried to bring back a deterrence through brute force, that deterrence being a “superiority” or perceived superiority over through technology.
This was not achieved as during this whole situation, Israel's attacks on Iran and the continuation of the campaign in Gaza brought upon them attacks. Attacks that highlighted the weakness and vulnerability of the Israeli US air defence, including the US’s Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) system. This, along with the groups in the region, including in Yemen, show that all the technology in the world could not stop a resistance in the region from supporting their comrades in Palestine.
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