Wednesday Briefing: Updates from Gaza

Israel was trying to demolish part of a Palestinian neighborhood as it pursued a plan to create a buffer zone between Gaza and Israel when around 20 Israeli soldiers were killed on Monday in an explosion, according to Israeli officials.

Here’s the latest.

The explosion occurred after Gazan militants fired toward a tank guarding an Israeli unit. The unit had been setting explosives inside Palestinian buildings on the border in central Gaza with the intention of demolishing them, according to a news briefing from Israel’s military. In the firefight, the explosives went off, killing many of the soldiers inside.

Israel wants to demolish Palestinian buildings close to the border to create what it describes as a “security zone,” according to three officials, who spoke anonymously. The idea of a buffer zone in Gaza has been rejected by both the U.S. National Security Council and the U.S. State Department because it would effectively reduce the size of the enclave. Israeli ministers had hinted of plans to create a buffer zone since the first weeks of the war.

Balakrishnan Rajagopal, the U.N. special rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, said a systematic demolition of Palestinian border homes could constitute a war crime because they pose no immediate threat to Israel.