Inside the sprawling military zone Israel uses to control Gaza From within

Inside the zone, called the Netzarim corridor after a former Israeli settlement, there are two military bases made up of trailer-sized mobile bomb shelters with water, electrical poles, cellular towers and a synagogue. The road is now paved, and soldiers zip along in open-top vehicles through an area the size of Tel Aviv.

The Netzarim corridor is one of the growing signs that the Israeli military is planning for an indefinite stay in Gaza. Israel has created several other military roads in Gaza, and blocked out a roughly half-mile buffer zone snaking around the territory.

Taken together, they paint a picture of tight Israeli control that some Israelis and Palestinians worry presages a long-term Israeli occupation or even a rebuilding of Jewish settlements in Gaza—something Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said won’t happen.

Nearly everything around the Netzarim corridor is destroyed—Palestinian neighborhoods, villages and farmland. Israel uses the corridor to maintain tight control over Gaza’s flow of people, goods and weapons.

It is common for militaries to strengthen logistical lines and establish forward operating bases during counter insurgencies, said Andreas Krieg, a senior lecturer at the School of Security Studies at King’s College London. But he said the mass destruction of civilian infrastructure and intentional prevention of freedom of movement suggest Israel is acting as if Gaza is its own territory rather than a separate area.

“Everything is reversible, but putting a lot of investment there doesn’t suggest they are leaving any time soon," Krieg said. “The main purpose here is to divide and rule."

Netanyahu has said Israel will need to have security control over the territory, possibly for years, something the Netzarim corridor would facilitate. Israel says the zone is a key transportation and logistical hub for the army.

A major in the Israeli military who was last stationed at Netzarim in June said that the corridor helps Israel conduct attack missions to the north and south with more ease. This includes a hostage rescue mission in the central Gaza city of Nuseirat in June.

It also ensures that Hamas can’t move freely about the strip; Palestinians seeking to move south must traverse one of two checkpoints that go through the corridor.

Netanyahu has said Israel doesn’t intend to permanently occupy the strip or rebuild settlements there, though powerful far-right ministers in his government want exactly that to prevent another attack like the one Hamas carried out on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians, and taking over 240 hostages.

Israeli officials say the damage along the corridor came from fighting with Hamas, the removal of booby-trapped buildings, and operational needs to protect troops along the route. Israeli military officials say all the structures and troops were built so that they can be removed in a single day.

“This is for the mobility of the Israeli forces, and that mobility is part of their protection," said Miri Eisin, a former deputy head of the Israeli military’s combat intelligence corps. “This doesn’t mean they are planning to stay a long time. It means they don’t know how long they are staying."

The Biden administration has said it opposes a military occupation of Gaza or reducing the size of the territory. President-elect Donald Trump has said he wants Israel to wrap up the war as soon as possible, though it isn’t clear if he will oppose Israeli security control over the enclave.

Netzarim has been a point of contention in cease-fire negotiations between Israel and Hamas. Israel has used it as a bargaining chip to obtain the release of hostages still held by the U.S.-designated terrorist group.

Israeli soldiers recall that work on the Netzarim corridor began within days of entering the territory.

At the start of the war, soldiers needed slow-moving armored vehicles to traverse the corridor. Those stationed there slept in tents or in empty civilian buildings. They used bags to collect excrement or gerryrigged toilets with concrete blocks and wood. They were prime targets for militants who could use nearby buildings to sneak up on them. Many were cut off from the outside world with no working phone signal.

Over time, the area was first laid with gravel and then paved with cement and protected at parts with concrete blocks adorned with Israeli flags, satellite imagery and videos from the area show.

“Each time we saw it developing more. Suddenly there was permanent infrastructure and a small outpost was put up in the center and then another outpost, and suddenly they were repairing tanks inside the strip," said a reservist who was last stationed at the Netzarim corridor around February 2023. “Each time it became more and more permanent."

Videos posted on social media by soldiers show a caravan synagogue called “Love of Israel" was brought inside the corridor from Israel on the back of a truck. According to photos and videos, the synagogue which is located near the sea includes air conditioning and rows of blue chairs facing a bimah, or dais, and an ark for a Torah scroll.

Soldiers said that by the summer, all the bases and outposts on the corridor had electricity in addition to generators, observation points and kitchens.

“While we are making conditions better for soldiers, we are also ready and if needed can leave that area within a day," Israeli military spokesman Nadav Shoshani said.

Satellite imagery shows the military has other outposts around the zone in previously existing buildings that they have surrounded with sand berms and lined with gravel.

“Based on satellite imagery, you see a lot of destruction and what appears to be temporary buildings," said Jake Godin, researcher at Bellingcat, an investigative consortium. “Besides for roads being paved, I haven’t seen anything that shows plans for a permanent presence yet."

In addition to Netzarim, Israel appears to be carving a northern corridor that separates Gaza City, the strip’s largest, from densely packed towns to its north. Israel has also repaved an old road from the Israeli city of Kissufim into central Gaza, but only about half way through the enclave. Israeli officials say the road is meant to facilitate the transfer of humanitarian aid into the strip.

Israel has also expanded and repaved a road along the nearly nine-mile-long border between Egypt and Gaza, called the Philadelphi corridor.

Israel took control of the Philadelphi corridor in late May. When The Wall Street Journal visited the area in July, the military-led media convoy traveled in open-top Humvees from Israel’s Kerem Shalom crossing through desert-like terrain to get to the corridor. It then drove along a large portion of the border on a narrow sandy paved road.

For many Gazans, seeing Israeli troops back along Netzarim makes them recall the years of occupation and many worry the Israeli military presence will last for years even if there is a cease-fire. It is also a stark example of how the war has torn apart families. An estimated 1.9 million people have been displaced by the war, which has killed more than 46,000 people, according to local health authorities who don’t say how many were combatants.

Ghada Suliman, 48, is in Gaza City with her children, separated from her husband, who was working inside Israel on Oct. 7 last year. He was detained at the time and eventually released back into Gaza but through the south. For more than a year, they haven’t been able to reunite.

“I don’t think we will be reunited anytime soon," said Suliman. “I know Gaza has changed and getting him back north won’t be easy."

Abeer Ayyoub contributed to this article.

Write to Dov Lieber at dov.lieber@wsj.com and Anat Peled at anat.peled@wsj.com