Israeli troops have flattened farmland and cleared entire residential districts in Gaza to open a “kill zone” around the enclave, according to a report by the Israeli rights group Breaking the Silence.

It quoted soldiers who served in Gaza during the creation of the buffer zone, which was extended to a depth of 800 to 1,500 metres (875 to 1,640 yards) inside the enclave by December and has since been expanded further by Israeli troops.

“The borderline is a kill zone, a lower area, a lowland,” the report quotes a captain in the Armored Corps as saying.

Soldiers said troops using bulldozers and excavators along with thousands of mines and explosives destroyed around 3,500 buildings as well as agricultural and industrial areas that could have been vital in post-war reconstruction.

“Essentially, everything gets mowed down, everything,” the report quoted one reserve soldier serving in the Armored Corps as saying. “Every building and every structure.”

Another soldier said the area looked “like Hiroshima”.