Israel Expands Military Fortifications Across Gaza, Particularly in Rafah, Satellite Images Show

Satellite images examined by Al Jazeera Digital Investigations Unit suggest that Israel is expanding military fortifications across Gaza “particularly in Rafah,” even as the United States has proposed plans to rebuild Rafah after two years of Israeli bombardment.

“The United States has proposed plans to rebuild Rafah, a city in southern Gaza that was flattened by two years of Israeli bombardment”

Al Jazeera

Al Jazeera reports that an examination of Planet Labs and Sentinel Hub satellite imagery found the “project has stalled before even breaking ground,” while Israeli military construction accelerates elsewhere.

Al Jazeera

The investigation says that “while civilian reconstruction has slowed, Israeli military construction has accelerated,” and it points to specific imagery windows, including confirmation that “rubble removal has essentially ceased in Beit Hanoon in the north and Rafah.”

Al Jazeera adds that satellite imagery from March 10 shows “extensive clearing and fortification at the strategic al-Muntar hilltop in Shujayea,” and it also describes outposts in Khan Younis in Gaza’s south.

In central Gaza, Al Jazeera says Sentinel imagery from March 15 revealed “ongoing work on a trench and dirt berm reaching as far as the Maghazi camp near Deir el-Balah.”

The same Al Jazeera report frames these findings as aligning with a “late 2025 investigation by Forensic Architecture” that identified “48 Israeli military sites within Gaza,” including “13 of which were built after an October ‘ceasefire’.”

Al Jazeera describes how a “ceasefire” boundary is being transformed into a permanent frontier, focusing on what it calls Israel’s “yellow line.”

It says that “A new, permanent border” is emerging as Israeli forces build along and beyond the line, and it cites satellite images from March 4 in Beit Lahiya in the north.

Al-Jazeera Net

Al Jazeera reports that those images show “the construction of a dirt berm along the ‘yellow line’ and another running parallel to it and constructed more than 580 metres (634 yards) into what the ‘ceasefire’ designates as land where Palestinians are supposed to live.”

The investigation also says that “Israeli Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir defined the line as a ‘new border’,” and it adds that Defence Minister Israel Katz later declared Israel would “never leave Gaza,” promising to establish military-agricultural settlements.

Al Jazeera further states that it “documented that Israel has secretly moved concrete boundary markers hundreds of metres deeper into areas designated for Palestinians.”

In a separate account, Oz Arab Media, citing Al Jazeera, says images taken from February 20 to March 4, 2026 show “no new construction or rubble clearance at the proposed site for the ‘New Rafah’ project,” and it describes a “stark contrast between the slow pace of civilian rebuilding and the rapid expansion of Israeli military infrastructure.”

Al Jazeera reports that despite an October “ceasefire,” violence persists across Gaza, and it ties the continuing attacks to efforts to level areas designated for Palestinian habitation.

It says Gaza’s Ministry of Health reported “750 deaths and more than 2,090 injuries since the ‘ceasefire’ began,” and it adds that this brings the total death toll since the October 2023 start of Israel’s “genocidal war” to “more than 72,300.”

The same Al Jazeera report says “An independent study in The Lancet medical journal” estimated “more than 75,000 deaths from ‘direct violence’ by early 2025 alone.”

Al Jazeera also reports that “Israel has launched attacks on 160 out of the 182 days of the ‘ceasefire’,” and it says these attacks “often involve incursions aimed at levelling areas designated for Palestinian habitation.”

It describes documentation hurdles, saying “Planet Labs announced an ‘indefinite’ ban on images from conflict zones after a US government request,” and it adds that “Other providers, like Vantor, have imposed similar restrictions.”

Al Jazeera also says humanitarian assessments by aid groups “including Oxfam and Save the Children” gave the Trump reconstruction plan a “failing grade,” adding that it “failed to ‘demonstrate a clear impact on conditions inside Gaza’.”

The sources present competing explanations for what is happening, with Al Jazeera describing a US-Israeli vision for post-war Gaza alongside satellite evidence of military entrenchment.

Al Jazeera recounts that at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January, Jared Kushner, described as “US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law,” showcased AI-generated visions of a “New Rafah” featuring “skyscrapers and luxury resorts,” and it says Trump promoted the concept through a “20-point plan” promising “$10bn in funding via the Board of Peace.”

Anadolu Ajansi

Al Jazeera also reports that the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor warned that the “New Rafah” plan is a “mechanism for demographic re-engineering and forced displacement,” describing a division of Gaza into “population blocks and closed military zones.”

It says Palestinians would be confined to “cities” of residential caravans, each packing roughly “25,000 people into a single square kilometre (0.4sq miles),” surrounded by “fences and checkpoints,” with access to essential services contingent upon passing “Israeli-US security screenings.”

Countercurrents echoes the demographic and control framing, asserting that the Yellow Line “isolates about 55 per cent of the Gaza Strip” and that the policy aims to impose “a permanent fait accompli.”

ISM-France, citing Forensic Architecture and Drop Site News, describes a different mechanism, saying Israel is “razing a strategic area of Rafah in southern Gaza, compacting the soil and clearing rubble,” suggesting land preparation for “new residential infrastructure” that could “effectively confine them within a zone under total Israeli military control.”

Across the reporting, the next steps described by the sources revolve around continued military entrenchment, planned “Alternative Safe Communities,” and the practical limits on monitoring.

Al Jazeera says its imagery findings show that “Israeli forces are systematically entrenching a permanent military reality across the devastated enclave,” and it links this to the “New Rafah” concept being promoted at Davos while construction appears to stall.

CBC

It also says that “Efforts to document these developments are facing unprecedented hurdles,” pointing to Planet Labs’ “indefinite” ban on images from conflict zones after a US government request and Vantor’s similar restrictions.

Oz Arab Media frames the same monitoring and reconstruction tension by stating that satellite imagery shows “no new construction or rubble clearance” at the proposed “New Rafah” site, while it describes “ongoing construction of trenches and roads linking military sites” as suggesting permanent bases.

ISM-France adds a concrete timeline and geography for what it calls preparation for confinement, saying the activity is concentrated in a “roughly one-square-kilometer area in Rafah, at the intersection of the two military corridors,” and it describes earthworks since December.

Countercurrents describes consequences for civilians by saying the sites “pose a direct and serious threat to civilians travelling along Salah al-Din Road in eastern Gaza,” and it cites Euro-Med Monitor’s report of an incident on “the morning of Monday, 6 April” in which “52-year-old Majdi Mustafa Ibrahim Aslan, a contractor with the World Health Organization, was killed.”