The Director General of the Government Media Office in the Gaza Strip, Ismail Al Thawabteh, said that the occupation is imposing direct control through what is known as the “yellow zone” over an area of 198.8 square kilometres out of Gaza’s total area of 365 square kilometres. This represents 54.5 percent of the Strip.
In exclusive remarks to Arabi21, Al Thawabteh explained that the fire control zone, known as the “orange zone”, covers an area of 33.5 square kilometres, or 9.2 percent. These are areas where civilians are not permitted to enter without being directly targeted.
He noted that only 132.7 square kilometres remain available to the population of the Gaza Strip, representing just 36.4 percent of its total area. These remaining areas are densely populated and are experiencing a near-total collapse of basic living conditions.
Al Thawabteh pointed out that the occupation’s movement of what is known as the “yellow line” towards Palestinian-controlled areas falls within a systematic policy aimed at imposing new facts on the ground by force, and expanding actual control over land outside any existing legal frameworks or agreements.
He stressed that through this policy, the occupation seeks to shrink the remaining space in which the population lives, deepen geographic isolation, and transform vast areas into closed military belts or open killing zones. This serves its security and military objectives at the expense of the Palestinian civilian presence.
He added, “This behaviour constitutes a blatant violation of the rules of international humanitarian law, and a clear attempt to redraw lines of control by force, far removed from any humanitarian or legal obligations.”
Al Thawabteh noted that, according to government field monitoring, the yellow line and concrete blocks have been moved in several areas across Gaza’s governorates, including Al Tuffah, Al Shuja’iyya, Al Zeitoun, and east of Khan Younis. This has led to an expansion of the occupation’s effective control.
Regarding the proportion of land seized in each governorate, he stated that the figures are as follows: in Rafah Governorate, 90.6 percent of its area; in North Gaza, 60.7 percent; in Khan Younis, 57 percent; in Gaza Governorate, 40 percent; and in the Central Governorate, 22 percent.
Al Thawabteh emphasised that shifting the yellow line poses a direct and real threat to the lives of tens of thousands of displaced people who are already located in fragile and unsafe areas.
He said that this movement reduces the space available for shelter, forcibly pushes displaced people into more overcrowded areas, and turns places of displacement into zones of direct military contact or fire targeting. It also exposes children, women, and the elderly to the risks of killing, injury, and repeated displacement, in addition to further undermining the remaining capacity of humanitarian institutions to deliver services.
He continued, “The expansion of the orange zone, the fire control zone, warns of a worsening humanitarian catastrophe, as these areas become unfit for life, movement, or even basic mobility, deepening policies of forced displacement.”
On monitoring the occupation’s movements, he said that relevant government bodies possess field maps documenting the locations of the yellow line at the moment the ceasefire came into effect, and comparing them with the new locations after repeated movements.
These maps clearly show the scale of the expansion carried out by the occupation and the increasing encroachment on Gaza’s land, particularly in Rafah, North Gaza, and Khan Younis. These changes coincided with unprecedented levels of destruction reaching 95 percent in Rafah, 88 percent in North Gaza, and 85 percent in Khan Younis. In Gaza Governorate, destruction reached 78 percent, while in the Central Governorate it reached 65 percent.
He stressed that these maps are being used for legal, media, diplomatic, and political documentation, and are presented to relevant bodies and international actors as evidence of a policy of forced annexation and coercive alteration of the geographic and demographic reality in the Gaza Strip.
