Israel Has Redrawn Middle East Map Through Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and West Bank Operations, Analysis Finds

Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the years of war in the Middle East, and many more have been injured and displaced, according to the ABC. The broadcaster reports that the map of the region has been redrawn, mostly by the decisions of one country and enforced by its military, a toll that calls for care toward the grieving (Psalm 34:18).

The ABC states that Hamas-led attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, killed about 1,200 people and resulted in 251 people being taken hostage. It reports that the attacks triggered a grinding war in Gaza, in which Hamas and its partners were pursued for their crimes, and an explosion of fighting in Lebanon after Hezbollah opened fire on Israel in solidarity with Palestinians. Large military operations were launched in the West Bank, and an opportunity was seized in Syria after the collapse of a decades-long dictatorship in late 2024.

The ABC says the official justification given by Israel was security, including the need to insulate Israel and Israelis by carving out so-called buffer or security zones, some of them inside the borders of neighbouring sovereign nations. According to the report, the new lines have taken different forms: rubble, gates, cement blocks, checkpoints and, in Syria, a trench.

The ABC says it reviewed satellite imagery, government documents and maps, and spoke to people in the communities affected. Its analysis of Israeli military positions, buffer zones and settlement plans since October 2023 found that Israel now controls at least 2,490 square kilometres of territory across Syria, Gaza, Lebanon and the West Bank.

The report notes that Israel has never explicitly defined its borders, and that this reality has fuelled deeper concerns among critics of Israel. It describes some extreme religious elements in Israeli society that rely on Old Testament passages to suggest Israel should have a claim over a large swathe of the Middle East. It says the more mainstream view, including that held by the governing Likud Party, is that Israel should include all of biblical Judea and Samaria, roughly the current West Bank, and perhaps parts of Gaza. The ABC reports that Israel’s government has said it will not allow the creation of a Palestinian state.

Israel’s government says it is fighting for survival as it redraws the map. According to the ABC, those directly in Israel’s sights argue that it is simply pursuing its own territorial ambitions.

The report identifies an area on the Lebanon-Syria border where it says Israel’s so-called security strategy appears to culminate. Where two buffer zones meet, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) secures a vantage point on Mount Hermon that looks over Syria’s capital, Damascus, and into Lebanon. The ABC says the area was for decades a demilitarised zone patrolled by United Nations forces, but that this has now changed, and it began with a trench.

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