Israel is constructing a massive earthen barrier across significant stretches of the Gaza Strip, AP has reported citing satellite images. The new structure — 23 km of which has already been constructed in recent months — will separate the over 50% of the tiny enclave Israel controls from the rest of the territory, where the Palestinians still live.Why has Israel come up with this arrangement? Has something like this happened before in Palestinian territories or elsewhere? How will it affect the Israel-Palestine conflict? And how does international law see it? We explain.These giant earthen walls and raised berms (barriers) are fundamentally altering the physical geography of Gaza, effectively solidifying the 45-km Yellow Line that separates Israeli military-controlled territory in the east from Palestinian-controlled areas in the west. The barrier cuts through places that were once neighbourhoods, agricultural lands and transportation arteries but have now been flattened — preventing the return of the people pushed deeper inside the territory. The location of the giant earthen barrier within Gaza. Source: APFor Israel, the main reason is security. It wants to reduce the proximity between military positions and population centres by creating cleared, fortified buffer zones. The barrier will also deepen the blockade it has imposed on the people of Gaza for years now. These barriers may also fit in with Israel’s goal of dividing the territory into isolated northern and southern enclaves to allow forces to regulate civilian movement.Ultimately, such a barrier that divides Gaza will hurt the prospects of a contiguous territory, and, in turn, statehood.An old practiceEarthen berms and ramparts are among the oldest architectural defensive structures in human history, dating back to ancient siege warfare and Roman circumvallation lines. Historically, field armies threw up massive earthworks to enclose besieged cities or protect garrison boundaries at low engineering costs.Also Read | What is the ‘Yellow Line’ that may define new Gaza border?Story continues below this adModern warfare experts and military engineers see earth berms as structures that offer distinct advantages: They are easy and quick to be built; they provide better defence against heavy artillery and rocket fire and provide height to the defensive posts and surveillance sensors.As far as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is concerned, the barriers have evolved across several decades. It all began with the Gaza perimeter fence that was built in 1994 following the Oslo Accords to encircle the Gaza Strip along its 1949 armistice border. The Israeli West-Bank barrier near Ramallah. Wikimedia CommonsSince 2002, Israel has been building a planned 700-km barrier to separate the West Bank from Jerusalem and Israel. This barrier is a multi-layered structure combining concrete walls, fences, radar and patrol roads designed to separate Israeli towns from West Bank urban centers.Then came the subterranean anti-tunnel barriers along the Gaza perimeter. These are underground concrete walls and electronic sensor arrays aimed at detecting subterranean excavation.Where else have earth berms been used?Story continues below this adSetting up earthen berms is a solution that has been serving as a low-cost yet effective means of enforcing territorial separation and asymmetric control in major geopolitical conflicts globally.The Moroccan Wall (“The Berm”) in Western Sahara — a massive 2,700-km sand and stone embankment fortified with landmines and artillery — was built by Morocco in the 1980s to separate its controlled territory from the Polisario Front. Several more walls were built over the years. Location of the Moroccan sand walls in the Western Sahara. Wikimedia CommonsThe Israeli military itself deployed this engineering concept along the Suez Canal from 1968 to 1973; the Bar Lev Line featured a formidable 20-to-25-metre-high sand rampart designed to block Egyptian amphibious counterattacks.Similar applications of elevated earth mounding paired with sensor technology can also be found slicing across the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and along stretches of the Syrian–Turkish border. All these examples illustrate how modern armed forces rely on such earthworks to freeze front lines, manage border security and enforce long-term spatial divisions.Impact on any future Palestinian StateStory continues below this adGeographer Merav Amir, in her 2017 research paper Revisiting Politicide: State Annihilation in Israel/Palestine, notes that the partitioning of Gaza would pose severe structural challenges to the establishment of a viable, contiguous Palestinian state. Separating Gaza into different zones is like the administrative arrangements made in the West Bank, where land is divided into non-contiguous pockets. The spatial fragmentation cripples unified governance and statehood viability, she adds. Merav also says that dividing Gaza’s main transport routes isolates urban hubs, such as Gaza City, from agricultural lands in the south. It will also affect domestic supply chains.Also Read | Gaza, Lebanon, Iran: How Israel’s wars have damaged heritage sites across the Middle EastMost importantly, the barriers will prevent a large number of displaced Palestinians from returning to their homes and neighborhoods destroyed by Israeli bombing in the ongoing war. Hence, the temporary military lines will eventually stand as boundaries.Experts fear that the earthen barriers signal a shift from periodic military operations toward indefinite spatial management. Rather than resolving underlying political questions, internal barriers entrench asymmetric control and will lock both sides into a cycle of containment and resistance.Story continues below this adResearchers including Ian Slesenger and Majd Abuamer, who have studied Israeli security strategies in Gaza, have noted that for Palestinians, these barriers represent permanent territorial displacement. For Israel, relying on massive physical perimeter defences reflects an ongoing reliance on physical engineering to address deep-seated geopolitical security challenges.International reactions and legal frameworksUnder Article 47 and Article 53 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, an occupying power is prohibited from destroying or confiscating real property or making permanent structural alterations to occupied territory, except where absolute military necessity demands temporary measures.UN officials have consistently warned that permanent buffer zones or internal divisions violate Gaza’s territorial integrity, as affirmed in UN Security Council Resolution 2720. UN leadership maintains that Gaza must remain an integral part of a future Palestinian state without territorial reduction.Meanwhile, the EU diplomatic leadership has repeatedly stated that there should be “no permanent occupation, no buffer zones, and no reduction of the territory of Gaza. The Arab League and regional powers, including Egypt and Jordan, strongly oppose internal partitioning, viewing permanent earthworks as a prelude to forced displacement or long-term annexation of the Palestinian territories.