Inside Gaza swaths of land closest to the Israeli border have been turned into *** wasteland. Nearly every building within about *** half *** mile of the border fence has been destroyed. We filmed this footage *** year ago while demolitions were still ongoing. Over time, the Israeli military has raised about 22 square miles of Palestinian land, creating *** buffer zone on about 16% of Gaza's territory. It is *** no go zone for Palestinians, some of whom have been killed after setting foot inside the unmarked perimeter. Now for the first time, an Israeli soldier sat down with us to describe how the military systematically destroyed civilian infrastructure to create this buffer zone. Some of them, the buildings were destroyed completely, and some were still standing, and our job was to make more of the first kind. But the fact that there were still buildings standing meant that the mission wasn't done. Yeah, and we destroyed them one by one in *** very methodical fashion, area by area. Sergeant First Class in the 5th Infantry Brigade, he was called up to reserve duty on October 7th and was later deployed here in the industrial zone of Gaza City's Shujaiya neighborhood, protecting combat engineers as they bulldozed buildings and rigged others to explode. We've blurred his face and changed his voice because he risks reprisals for speaking out about *** policy the Israeli military has never officially acknowledged. Was it clear to you that this was not the actions of one commander or one year. I know other units were doing the same up north and then down south. I know it came from Harper high. What, what did they tell you about the mission to raise these buildings and establish this security zone? One was that there's *** lesson from October 7th. We're gonna have *** larger buffer zone, larger than before, and the other was that on October 7th, this industrial zone was used as *** launching ground. Over the course of the war, this one time economic hub was flattened. This video, which CNNGO located, shows the destruction of Gaza's only Coca-Cola factory, but it's not just factories in the town of Khuzaa, hundreds of homes were leveled with *** clear zone of destruction spanning about 1 kilometer from the border. Residential buildings, greenhouses, sheds, factories, you name it, it needs to be flat. That's the order, *** sergeant Major who served in huza said. Except for the UNRA school in that small water facility, the directive was nothing left. He is one of *** dozen Israeli soldiers who described the demolitions and enforcement of the buffer zone to Breaking the Silence, an Israeli watchdog group that verifies and publishes soldiers' testimonials. Some also described how the buffer zone has been turned into *** kill zone for Palestinians. *** sergeant first class in the Armored Corps described the rules of engagement. Adult male kill, shoot to kill, for women and children, shoot to drive away. People were incriminated for having bags in their hands, *** warrant officer in the IDF said. Guy showed up with *** bag, incriminated terrorists. I believe they came to Pehobeza, an edible plant, but the army says no, they're hiding, boom. The kill zone is in essence the announcement of *** party to the war that they won't take feasible precautions, that they won't verify the status of an individual before attacking them, and that definitely violates international law. Is this kind of widespread destruction of civilian property to create *** buffer. own legal under international law needs to be *** legitimate military objective and operational objective, and the only way to achieve it would be to destroy the civilian property. And at that scale that's simply not quite plausible. If there is no military necessity, then that fulfills the criteria for *** war crime. The Israeli military did not respond to CNN's requests for comment. More than 6200 Palestinian buildings have been damaged or destroyed within 1 kilometer of the Gaza border, according to satellite analysis, including here in Al Barej, where homes and acres of farmland were destroyed. For 40 years, Abdulazizalabahain grew olives, oranges, and guavass on that land, but that has all been ripped away from him. When they announced the 40 day truce, we went back. We found the house destroyed. The trees were bulldozed, but he has lost so much more. Abdulaziz says his son Mahmoud went to collect firewood near their home when he was shelled by an Israeli tank and killed. The Israeli military did not respond to CNN's requests for comment. They knew they were only collecting wood, not resisting or fighting, just *** cart with wood clearly visible. Still they were targeted. The Israelis did this intentionally. Even now, he says they will kill anyone who goes there. Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Jerusalem. Good.