Israel’s efforts to create a buffer zone along its border Gaza This constitutes a “crime” and an act of “blatant aggression” against the Palestinian people, Hamas official Osama Hamdan said, after media reports suggested such a plan was underway.

Hamdan, who lives in Lebanon, told reporters on Thursday that Israel was “trying to establish a security belt along Gaza’s borders by leveling entire blocks of apartments and razing farms and civilian infrastructure.”

“This is a crime and a blatant aggression against our land and our holy places,” he said, adding that “our people and our resistance will thwart these attempts.”

Hamdan called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “delusional” and said Gaza was becoming a “graveyard” of his plans. He also criticized the United States for “feeding” the Israeli military machine and participating in the crimes against Gaza.

Israeli media reported on Wednesday that the military wanted to create an informal buffer zone about a kilometer wide to prevent attackers from reaching Israeli communities near Gaza.

Two television channels broadcast footage that appeared to show a controlled demolition of several buildings on the Gaza side of the border, which the channels said took place in the area where an attack occurred killed 24 Israeli soldiers on Monday, causing the greatest loss of life in a single attack since Oct. 7.

Satellite images from Planet Labs PBC taken last Saturday, a day before the attack, appeared to show uniform destruction of buildings and agricultural fields in the area.

Military spokesmen have not used the term “buffer zone” but say troops are destroying infrastructure near the border to ensure the safety of Israeli communities on the other side.

Palestinian National Initiative Secretary General Mustafa Barghouti said the real intention behind such a move was to reduce the size of the Gaza Strip. If the execution were to take place, Barghouti told Al Jazeera, it could only be seen as an act of “ethnic cleansing” and at the same time a sign that Israel’s military goals in Gaza had failed.

“Unjustified” under international law.

Geoffrey Nice, a former UN war crimes prosecutor, told Al Jazeera: Israel has no legal reason to create a “buffer zone” in Gaza by destroying Palestinian homes and confiscating agricultural land.

“If you want a demilitarized zone that you want to fill with landmines, why don’t you have it on the Israeli side and prevent people from crossing it?” he asked. “What they are proposing is, in fact and in everyone’s interpretation, an occupation.”

He noted that the fertile farmland that Israel wants to take over is “critical to Gaza’s economy.”

“But the process has already begun. Numerous buildings have already been razed to the ground. It is unjustified in every respect under international law,” Nice said, suggesting sanctions by powerful nations against Israel to stop the land grab.

The United States, which strongly supports Israel’s alleged right to self-defense, said it opposed any attempt by Israel to reduce Gaza’s territory or to occupy it militarily.

The United States and much of the international community have proposed a postwar plan that includes the creation of a Palestinian state as part of a plan Two-state solution to the conflict, a possibility that Netanyahu rejected.

Barghouti said that if the US was serious about its opposition to the buffer zone, it would call on Israel to stop its attacks on Gaza.

“The United States, unfortunately, is complicit in this war, and unless it supports a ceasefire, it will become complicit in the war crimes taking place in Gaza,” he said.

Al Jazeera’s Kimberly Halkett reported from Washington DC that Israeli plans to create a buffer zone in Gaza are not sitting well with the White House. “This is just another example of a growing divide between the [US President Joe] Biden administration and the Israeli government,” she said.

“There is some scope for a transitional arrangement for a buffer zone, but the concern… is that transitional arrangements have become permanent in the past.”