law – are prevalent in the West Bank: the Annexation and Separation Wall,
as well as the construction and expansion of colonies and their associated
infrastructures.148 The Wall illegally runs through the West Bank appropriating
private Palestinian land.149 If completed, the wall will de facto annex 708
square kilometers of the West Bank.150
In the Gaza Strip, or the so-called ‘buffer zone’, is a military no-go area that
comprises the entire northern and eastern perimeter of the Gaza Strip’s border
with Israel, inside the Palestinian territory, as well as at sea. The precise areas
designated by Israel as ‘buffer zone’ are unknown, and the unpredictably
changing Israeli policies are typically enforced with live fire.151 The buffer
zone covers 17 percent of Gaza’s total land area and, most significantly, 35
percent of its agricultural land.152 It is estimated that 113,000 people or 7.5
percent of the population have been directly impacted by the buffer zone.153
It violates the provisions of the Oslo Accords and all the subsequent ceasefire
agreements.154 The Israeli imposed buffer zone surrounding the Gaza Strip,
both on the land-locked side and the sea-side, could constitute de facto
confiscation.
There are various other Israeli mechanisms leading to confiscation of
Palestinian land in the oPt. Some of these are addressed within the
case studies presented below, which provide an illustration of how such
mechanisms operate on the ground.
148 BADIL, Israeli Land Grab, 73, supra note 18.
149 International Court of Justice, Advisory Opinion, “Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall
in the Occupied Palestinian Territory”, 9 July 2014, available at: http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/index.
php?pr=71&code=mwp&p1=3&p2=4&p3=6 [accessed 22 September 2017].
150 BADIL, Israeli Land Grab, 57, supra note 18.
151 Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, “The Buffer Zone in the Gaza Strip,” 2010, available at: http://
pchrgaza.org/en/?p=5042 [accessed 25 September 2017].
152 United National Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and World Food Programme,
“Between the Fence and a Hard Place: The Humanitarian Impact of Israeli Imposed Restrictions to
Land and Sea in the Gaza Strip,” 2010, 5, available at: https://www.ochaopt.org/content/betweenfence-and-hard-place [accessed 25 September 2017].
153 Diakonia, “Within Range: An Analysis of the Legality of the Land ’Buffer Zone’ In the Gaza Strip,”
September 2011, 10, available at: https://www.diakonia.se/globalassets/documents/ihl/ihl-in-opt/
within_range_legal_analysis_of_the_gaza_buffer_zone_on_land_diakonia_sept2011.pdf
154 PCHR, “Israeli Buffer Zone Policies Typically Enforced with Live Fire,” IMEMC, 11 May 2015, available
at: http://imemc.org/article/71548/ [accessed 22 September 2017].
55
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