Haitham Imad/EPA
Palestinians sitting by a bonfire in the rubble of their destroyed home in Khan Yunis, in the south of the Gaza Strip.
IDF advances yellow line during ceasefire as diplomacy is pushed into the background. Israel now controls around 59% of the enclave and kills on the “yellow line”, which civilians don’t even know exactly where it is.
In recent months, Israel has consolidated its control over a growing part of the Gaza Strip, by expanding the zone under military rule and advancing the so-called “yellow line”, which separates its forces from areas still controlled by Hamas. All during a ceasefire brokered by the United States, in force for seven months.
According to people familiar with the process, cited by , Israel now controls around 59% of the enclave, compared to 53% at the beginning of the ceasefire agreed in October.
The increase resulted from the advance of the operational border that divides the areas under Israeli control from the areas dominated by Hamas. In at least one point, according to the newspaper’s sources, Israeli troops moved this line a few hundred meters, making it coincide with the Salah al-Din road, Gaza’s main north-south thoroughfare.
Satellite images show the construction of a deep ditch and raised sand berms along parts of the line, mainly in the center of the Gaza Strip, where much of the population lives. Similar fortifications are visible in the north and south, but the central barrier is more continuous and more difficult to overcome. The Israeli military says this area is particularly vulnerable to attack.
The line will now be punctuated by at least seven new military postsprotected by sand berms. Some are paved and include more than a dozen buildings, reinforcing Israel’s presence in an area where there are already dozens of military positions.
These structures seem to indicate that the Gaza division is becoming more permanentdespite Israel constantly denying that it intends to definitively occupy the territory.
The situation represents a continuation of uncertainty for Palestinians who continue to live among rubble, in tents or in densely populated areas under Hamas control. The division also created a kind of “no man’s land” within the enclave, with constant risks for civilians.
Since the start of the ceasefire, dozens of Gazans and at least five Israeli soldiers have died in incidents near the yellow line. Israel claims to have fired at militants or people who approached suspiciously; Palestinians say some civilians did not know exactly where the line was.
O diplomatic impasse is the central element of the new phase of the crisis. Israel insists it will not withdraw its troops as long as Hamas maintains control over part of Gaza. Many Arab governments, in turn, refuse to finance reconstruction until there is a clearer political solution. The US-led Peace Council is trying to push ahead with reconstruction projects, including the construction of new housing areas in the Israeli-controlled part of Gaza, a proposal opposed by some Arab governments and Hamas.
Nickolay Mladenov, the diplomat leading efforts linked to the plan negotiated by Donald Trump, warned in May that the more the current state of affairs is stabilized, the more difficult it will be to reverse. Mladenov fears that Gaza will end up permanently divided into two zones.
When asked about the advance of the yellow line, the Israeli Armed Forces responded that they act in accordance with orders from the political leadership. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office did not respond to requests for comment. Hamas accused Israel of disrespecting the mediators’ efforts and trying to backtrack on the agreement.
Netanyahu declared this month that Israel controls 60% of Gaza, an estimate close to that made by the Civil-Military Coordination Center created by the United States in Israel to monitor the ceasefire and coordinate humanitarian aid. The White House maintains that there has been significant progress in implementing Trump’s peace plan, although, in practice, the process is blocked at the ceasefire stage.
The agreement, accepted by Israel and Hamas under strong American pressure last autumn, provided for several stages: ceasefire, disarmament of Hamas, creation of a new government and new security forces in Gaza, and further withdrawal of Israeli troops. But the next steps did not move forward.
Nonetheless, Israel prepared plans for a new phase of fightingwhich some officials say could begin after the end of the war with Iran. Such a campaign could include incursion operations, targeted assassinations and a gradual takeover of more territory from Hamas.
Some Israeli analysts believe that Netanyahu’s government no longer believes in the full implementation of Trump’s plan or in the voluntary disarmament of Hamas.
On the other side, Arab and Israeli officials say Hamas is focused on rebuilding military capabilities lost during the war, including parts of its tunnel network. Israel has been drilling areas along the yellow line to locate underground passages and says it has destroyed dozens of kilometers of tunnels since the ceasefire.
Almost all of Gaza’s two million inhabitants live in areas controlled by Hamas. Many remain without adequate housing, the accumulated rubbish worsens sanitary problems and an infestation of rats was encouraged by the heat and lack of waste collection.
