Investigation reveals Israeli campaign to flatten Gaza town of Beit Hanoon 

The Israeli army is working to flatten the remains of homes in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoon, despite the ongoing ceasefire that began in October.

Al Jazeera’s digital investigations team Sanad analysed satellite images taken between October 8 – two days before the ceasefire began – and January 8, and found evidence of the operation, which some Palestinians fear may be a step towards the establishment of illegal Israeli settlements in Gaza.

Sanad found that the Israeli army has used bulldozers to clear around 408,000 square metres (4.39 million square feet) of land, including the remains of at least 329 homes, and agricultural sites, that Israel destroyed during its two-year war on Gaza.

Images from before the clearing operation show a Beit Hanoon with damaged buildings from the war, but some remained intact.

But by mid-December, many of the buildings had been totally razed, as well as former agricultural land, replaced by a flattened brown landscape.

The rubble-removal operations began directly at the edge of Beit Hanoon, facing the fence that separates the city from nearby Israeli settlements along the northern border, including Sderot, which is roughly 2 kilometres (1.2 miles) away from Beit Hanoon.

Israel has damaged or destroyed the majority of structures in Gaza – 81 percent by last October, according to the United Nations. Northern Gaza has borne the brunt of the damage, with many areas, such as Beit Hanoon, systematically razed to the ground.

The Israeli far right has consistently openly declared its desire for Israeli Jews to settle Gaza. In December 2024, Israeli ministers and parliament members visited a location in the southern Israeli town of Sderot, overlooking the Gaza Strip. They pointed at Beit Hanoon and Beit Lahiya, stating that more than 800 Jewish families were willing to move there “as soon as possible”, according to a report in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

Additionally, at an Israeli conference held on December 23, Defence Minister Israel Katz outlined plans to establish agricultural-military bases called “Nava Nahal” – Israeli military outposts that combine farming with an armed presence in an effort to consolidate control over a territory – in the north of Gaza.

Katz stressed that Israel “will never withdraw and will never leave Gaza”, calling these bases “replacements” for the Israeli settlements cleared in 2005. That was the year Israel withdrew its settlers from the Gaza Strip under a unilateral disengagement plan following the second Intifada.

The withdrawal continues to be a sore topic for the powerful Israeli far right, which considers it a mistake that must be corrected.

And even if settlements are not eventually built, Israeli leaders have made it clear that they want to control a buffer zone deep into Gaza, territory that would eventually include areas like Beit Hanoon.

One Israeli officer, quoted in the Long War Journal, said that the campaign to raze Beit Hanoon was part of an operation “to create a significant security perimeter and make it very difficult for the enemy to return to its infrastructure”.

Israel’s critics say the goal is clear. Speaking to Al Jazeera, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese said that “under the fog of war, Israel is going to destroy Gaza, displace the Palestinians, and attempt to reoccupy and conquer the land”.

Israel has violated the ceasefire at least 1,300 times since it began on October 10, which includes shooting at civilians 430 times and bombing or shelling Gaza more than 600 times.