Along the edges of the so-called “Yellow Line” east of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, Israeli military positions have become boundaries separating displaced Palestinians from their homes, their livelihoods and, increasingly, their chances of survival.
For families living near the expanding line, the ceasefire has brought neither security nor an end to displacement. Instead, Israeli military movements, demolitions and shifting territorial boundaries have created an increasingly restricted landscape in which entire communities are being forced to move yet again.
At a displacement shelter near the Yellow Line, 17 Palestinian families recently lost everything when their camp came under a sudden attack last Thursday. Israeli drones reportedly fired a series of incendiary projectiles, setting their tents and belongings ablaze and forcing the families to flee on foot in search of shelter, despite having almost no resources left.
Fidaa Abu Jamea, one of the camp’s residents, told Al Jazeera Net that the attack left them with no choice but to escape with their lives.
Another displaced resident, Mousa Abu Saada, said the families had been forced to abandon everything they owned and search for somewhere to stay, without even the most basic necessities for survival.
Their experience reflects a much wider development unfolding across Gaza, where a military boundary initially associated with ceasefire arrangements is progressively reshaping the territory itself.
The Yellow Line Is Moving West
The Yellow Line has become one of the most consequential geographical and military features in the besieged Gaza Strip.
Since the announcement of the ceasefire agreement on 9 October 2025, the boundaries of Israeli military control have undergone repeated changes, according to media investigations and accounts from the ground.
The line is physically marked by large concrete blocks painted yellow. Yet these markers have not remained in their original positions.
As Israeli forces move the blocks westwards, construct military barriers and positions, and demolish homes and residential areas, the territory available to Palestinian civilians continues to shrink.
These developments have raised fears that military withdrawals and redeployments presented as temporary arrangements could eventually produce a lasting geographical division of Gaza.
Following the ceasefire agreement, the Israeli army began establishing a buffer zone inside the Gaza Strip and repositioning its forces.
On 20 October 2025, the military announced that it had begun physically marking the line, acting on instructions from Israel’s political leadership. Yellow concrete blocks were placed along the designated boundary, accompanied by warnings to Palestinians against approaching them.
However, subsequent investigations raised questions about whether Israeli forces were remaining within the boundaries established under the agreement.
A BBC investigation published on 23 October 2025 found that the concrete markers had been placed beyond the route shown on the ceasefire maps.
In the Atatra area of Beit Lahia, in northern Gaza, the markers extended approximately 500 metres beyond the designated line. In Khan Younis, southern Gaza, the discrepancy reached approximately 290 metres.
The expansion continued.
In December 2025, Israeli positions advanced approximately 200 metres into the Tuffah neighbourhood in eastern Gaza City.
According to monitoring cited by the BBC, at least 40 buildings were destroyed in the area between the line’s previous and newly established positions.
What had initially been presented as a military demarcation was increasingly accompanied by the destruction of the very neighbourhoods through which it advanced.
Israeli Military Control Extends Across Most of Gaza
During January 2026, further evidence emerged of Israeli markers being moved hundreds of metres westwards in Khan Younis.
Some yellow concrete blocks appeared approximately 390 metres beyond their former positions, while others had advanced around 220 metres.
These movements coincided with the demolition of buildings and the dismantling of two encampments housing displaced Palestinians.
On 28 January, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that bulldozing and demolition operations were continuing along the Yellow Line.
The expansion was not limited to the relocation of concrete markers.
In May 2026, the United Nations was informed that humanitarian aid teams would need to coordinate their movements with Israel when crossing what later became known as the “Orange Line”.
The additional boundary introduced another layer of movement restrictions in areas adjacent to the Yellow Line, further complicating humanitarian access.
That same month, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) warned that the Yellow Line had expanded considerably in Gaza City and Khan Younis.
Five UNRWA facilities were now located close to the military zone, including two schools being used to shelter displaced families.
Israeli military vehicles were also observed advancing west of the Yellow Line in several locations, including areas surrounding the Netzarim Corridor in central Gaza, the Tuffah neighbourhood, and areas east of the Maghazi and Bureij refugee camps.
By July 2026, media reports and civilian testimonies documented further extensions of Israeli control into the Zeitoun, Tuffah and Shujaiya neighbourhoods in eastern Gaza City, as well as parts of Deir al-Balah, Khan Younis and Rafah.
The developments were accompanied by additional movements of the boundary markers and new evacuation orders.
The scale of Israel’s territorial control was subsequently acknowledged by its own military.
On 2 October 2026, an Israeli army-affiliated website quoted Gaza Division commander Liron Batito as saying that Israeli forces controlled 63 per cent of the Gaza Strip.
Batito also said the army had established 40 new military positions, describing the resulting deployment as providing Israeli forces with “freedom of operational action”.
His figures suggest that nearly two-thirds of Gaza remained under Israeli military control almost a year after the ceasefire agreement was announced.
Rights Monitor Estimates Israeli Control at 70 Per Cent
Palestinian human rights organisations believe the extent of Israeli control may be even greater than the military’s own figures suggest.
Maha al-Husseini, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor’s director in the Gaza Strip, told Al Jazeera Net that Israeli control currently extended across approximately 70 per cent of Gaza’s territory.
According to al-Husseini, that proportion had stood at 53 per cent immediately following the ceasefire agreement.
The change represents an increase of 17 percentage points in the estimated share of Gaza under Israeli control.
She said nearly two million Palestinians were now confined to an area of no more than 120 square kilometres, out of the Gaza Strip’s total area of approximately 360 square kilometres.
In other words, an estimated two million people are being concentrated into roughly one-third of Gaza’s territory.
Al-Husseini explained that the space available to Palestinian civilians began shrinking during the first weeks of the ceasefire.
Israeli forces, she said, gradually advanced and repositioned the Yellow Line without public announcements, while bombardment and the demolition of surrounding areas pushed residents further west.
The pattern, according to her assessment, is not simply one of military redeployment. It is also a process of progressively concentrating Gaza’s population into an increasingly restricted geographical area.
Military Outposts, Roads and the Destruction of Homes
Alaa al-Skafi, director of the Al-Dameer Association for Human Rights, said researchers from his organisation had documented the expansion of the Yellow Line across extensive areas throughout the Gaza Strip.
Speaking to Al Jazeera Net, he said Israeli forces had established approximately 38 military positions and barracks, most of them on elevated ground.
The military had also paved roads for its forces and installed communications towers, strengthening its ability to maintain a presence along the line.
Al-Skafi estimated that 95 per cent of homes located beyond the Yellow Line had been destroyed, alongside the destruction of infrastructure and essential facilities necessary for civilian life.
He added that Israeli forces had penetrated between four and six kilometres into Gaza in some areas.
Taken together, the military installations, new roads, communications infrastructure and widespread demolitions have intensified concerns about the long-term purpose of Israel’s territorial arrangements.
For Palestinians displaced from these areas, the destruction of housing and essential services also raises the question of whether returning home would remain possible even if Israeli forces eventually withdrew.
From Rafah to Khan Younis: The Line Reaches Residential Areas
In southern Gaza, particularly Rafah and Khan Younis, journalist Mohammed al-Amour told Al Jazeera Net that the areas under Israeli control had expanded noticeably during the year following the ceasefire agreement.
He said the changes had affected both the positioning of Israeli forces and the routes available for civilian movement.
Israeli troops had advanced hundreds of metres in Rafah and Khan Younis, forcing numerous families to abandon their homes and move elsewhere.
Further north, in central Gaza, journalist Youssef Rayyan documented the westward movement of both the Yellow Line and Israeli military vehicles.
The expansion was particularly evident along the corridor stretching from the eastern outskirts of Deir al-Balah towards the north-eastern edge of Bureij refugee camp.
Rayyan said the Israeli movements were accompanied by the bulldozing of homes and infrastructure, bringing military positions closer to populated areas on the eastern sides of the Nuseirat, Maghazi and Bureij refugee camps.
Some homes that previously stood hundreds of metres away from the earlier lines of military contact were now much closer to Israeli positions.
The shifting boundary forced families to move towards western parts of central Gaza, including sections of Deir al-Balah, Nuseirat and Zawayda.
The consequences also extended into agricultural areas in the eastern part of the governorate.
These areas had previously offered residents more space to live and work than the heavily overcrowded western districts.
As Israeli military control expanded, access to these areas became increasingly restricted, further reducing the land available to civilians for both housing and their livelihoods.
In Northern Gaza, the Yellow Line Cuts Through Neighbourhoods
The situation in northern Gaza reveals how far the Yellow Line has moved beyond its earlier positions.
Field journalist Hammam Asaliya told Al Jazeera Net that the line had advanced into inhabited areas in several locations, cutting through parts of Jabalia town and refugee camp, the Sheikh Zayed area, and Beit Lahia in the northern governorate.
The continued movement of Israeli forces into these areas has brought military activity increasingly close to displaced civilians.
Asaliya said Israeli military vehicles and engineering equipment continued directing fire towards displacement tents.
In eastern Gaza City, the territorial consequences are particularly severe.
The Yellow Line now extends through three of the city’s largest and most important neighbourhoods: Zeitoun, Tuffah and Shujaiya.
In Zeitoun, the eastern section has become a prohibited military zone, while the western section remains exposed to fire from Israeli drones and military vehicles.
In Tuffah, approximately three-quarters of the neighbourhood, primarily its eastern section, now lies within the Yellow Line.
In Shujaiya, the entire neighbourhood has fallen within the line’s area of Israeli military control.
The changes mean that the military boundary is no longer confined to Gaza’s eastern outskirts.
In several places, it now cuts directly through established residential neighbourhoods, restricting access to homes, streets and areas where Palestinians lived before their displacement.
Beyond Security: Is Israel Establishing a Permanent Division?
Military expert Major General Samir Abahra believes the Yellow Line represents a development that goes beyond temporary security arrangements.
He points to the expanding territory under Israeli control, the continued construction of military positions and observation facilities, and the ongoing destruction of houses and infrastructure.
Speaking to Al Jazeera Net, Abahra argued that the continuous expansion of the line, combined with the shrinking territory available to Palestinians, reflects an effort to establish conditions on the ground that may prove difficult to reverse.
He said the absence of clear indications that Israeli forces intend to return to their earlier deployment positions adds to those concerns.
In his assessment, the military developments cannot be separated from Israel’s domestic political calculations.
Abahra linked the continuation of Israeli military operations to the positions of Israel’s far right and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court over alleged war crimes in Gaza.
He argued that keeping Gaza vulnerable to renewed military escalation serves domestic political objectives alongside Israel’s publicly declared security aims.
The military expert also said Israel views its measures in Gaza as part of a broader effort to pressure the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, into surrendering its weapons.
Israel has presented its continued military presence and operations in Gaza in security terms, but the scale of territorial expansion, the installation of military infrastructure and the destruction of residential areas have intensified concerns that the Yellow Line could become something far more enduring than a temporary ceasefire boundary.
With Israeli forces acknowledging control over 63 per cent of Gaza, and human rights monitors placing that figure as high as 70 per cent, the central question is no longer simply where the Yellow Line was originally drawn.
It is whether the continuing movement of that line is creating the foundations for a lasting territorial division of the Gaza Strip, while millions of Palestinians are confined to an ever-smaller area of their own land.
