In Gaza, the Israeli occupation army needs only to move a yellow concrete block a few metres for the geography on the ground to change.
An area where Palestinians stood one day can become a prohibited zone the next, with residents warned not to approach it.
The blocks were installed under the ceasefire agreement as field markers separating areas where Israeli forces remained deployed from those they were expected to leave ahead of a full withdrawal during the agreement’s second phase.
They have instead become a moving boundary that advances deeper into the Gaza Strip, pushing the limits of Israeli military control further west.
The danger is no longer confined to the location of the blocks themselves. Maps published by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA, identify a broader restricted-access zone known as the orange line, covering the areas between Israeli military positions and the surrounding danger zones.
According to OCHA’s latest maps, these restricted areas had expanded to approximately 64.9 per cent of the Gaza Strip by June 2026, compared with an estimated 53 per cent during earlier stages.
The figures reflect the growing proportion of Gaza from which Palestinians have been excluded or where they can no longer move freely.
The lines drawn on maps, however, do not remain theoretical boundaries. In the daily lives of Palestinians in Gaza, they translate into the seizure of what little remains of their homes, land and livelihoods.
Families Suddenly Inside the Danger Zone
In Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, where the yellow line has seen its largest advance in recent days, some families found themselves inside the restricted zone overnight.
Their homes and farmland had remained outside the line only days earlier.
Residents said another change occurred on the night of Friday, 17 July, when Israeli quadcopter drones broadcast orders instructing people to evacuate towards the western part of the city and threatened to fire on anyone who remained.
Hazem Saeed, a resident of eastern Deir al-Balah, told Al Jazeera Net that Israeli military vehicles advanced during the night from the Abu Hamam position east of the city towards the areas covered by the evacuation orders.
The yellow concrete blocks were then moved between 300 and 350 metres westwards, bringing additional farmland and residential areas inside the line.
Saeed said the advance affected land belonging to the Abu Gharaba, Abu Ghaliba, Abu Bleima, Bin Saeed and al-Tarhouni families.
The blocks were positioned near Sultan al-Othmani Street, only metres from civilian homes.
“Some families woke up to find their homes directly beside the yellow line,” he said. “Some houses are now only two to four metres away, while many people have lost the agricultural land that was their only source of income.”
Saeed said Israeli forces withdrew at dawn after extensively bulldozing the land, leaving behind a new reality in which additional parts of Deir al-Balah had been seized.
For residents, living near the line now means losing both their land and the means by which they survive.
Living on the Firing Line
The yellow line’s expansion has not been limited to Deir al-Balah.
In the Zeitoun neighbourhood east of Gaza City, dozens of families have lived for months in direct proximity to the line, watching it move closer day after day.
Recent Israeli movements have forced additional families to flee.
OCHA announced on Tuesday that Israeli authorities had issued new evacuation orders to families living near the yellow line in the neighbourhood.
More than 30 families were displaced after their tents were destroyed over the previous two days.
Only around 70 metres from the yellow line, 71 families established a camp they named Ahl al-Sumoud, meaning “People of Steadfastness”.
The name is not merely a slogan, but a description of the conditions in which its residents live. They have found themselves on the firing line, without basic services and with severe restrictions on movement.
The camp is located on Salah al-Din Street near Zeitoun Club.
Its supervisor, Ramadan Abu Ammu, told Al Jazeera Net that residents had not remained because the location was safe, but because they had nowhere else to go.
“We are carrying our lives in our hands, but where can we go? We have nowhere else,” he said.
Shrapnel falls on the camp almost daily, while the sound of bombardment has become part of everyday life.
Abu Ammu’s own home, located beside the camp, collapsed on top of his parents.
They remain beneath the rubble because rescue crews have been unable to enter an area classified by relief organisations as dangerous.
A Creeping Death
Among the residents of Zeitoun who continue to remain close to the yellow line is Palestinian journalist Saed Hasaballah, who lives near Ahl al-Sumoud camp.
He described what is happening as a “creeping death”, with intense bombardment and gunfire preceding every advance of the yellow concrete blocks.
Hasaballah told Al Jazeera Net that residents are not only facing shelling and gunfire, but also constant pressure intended to force them from their homes.
Bullets are now being fired directly at houses, killing and wounding Palestinians, he said.
“The occupation wants to drive us out by force, but the people are holding on to their land,” he added.
Homes Levelled to the Ground
In northern Gaza, the advance of the yellow line has involved far more than moving concrete blocks.
The entire landscape beside it has been transformed into an open military zone where buildings are demolished, earth barriers are erected and observation towers are installed, leaving every civilian movement exposed to Israeli forces.
Suhail Awda, a resident of northern Gaza, told Al Jazeera Net that the line had advanced between 1,000 and 1,500 metres in his area compared with its location during the first days of the ceasefire agreement.
At that time, it ran alongside the railway road towards Beit Hanoun. It now reaches al-Trans Street and Sheikh Zayed Roundabout.
Awda said the process was not limited to relocating the line. Israeli forces were erasing the area’s physical features entirely.
Israeli bulldozers operate almost daily, levelling homes to the ground. Buildings that remained partially standing when the yellow line was first established have now been reduced to rubble.
He said Israeli forces sometimes complete the destruction by sending explosive-laden quadcopter drones to houses located behind the line and detonating them remotely.
Bulldozing operations and the removal of what remains of the area continue at the same time.
Israeli Military Fortifications
Awda said Israeli forces had built massive earth barriers on the elevated ground of Tal al-Zaatar and installed observation towers behind them.
Further fortifications extend across the area, giving the occupation army direct oversight of the yellow line’s surroundings and facilitating sniper fire and shootings that now target civilians almost daily.
The movement of tanks, bulldozers and soldiers has become a routine sight for Palestinians still living around 100 metres from the line, despite the danger and the scarcity of basic resources.
Awda said the area had been transformed into a zone of continuous surveillance and control.
According to his testimony, local armed groups aligned with the occupation also carry out incursions, arrests and assaults against young men living near the line before handing some of them over to the Israeli army.
He said a young Palestinian from the area around al-Janzir Roundabout in Beit Lahia had recently been detained, beaten and assaulted.
His family was threatened over the telephone before he was handed to Israeli forces, according to Awda.
From a Field Marker to a Political Reality
Observers do not view Israel’s expansion of the yellow line simply as a military movement on the ground.
They see it as a process reshaping the map of effective control across Gaza and imposing a new reality that goes beyond undeclared field advances towards a clearer policy of expanding Israeli domination.
Political analyst Ahmed al-Tanani told Al Jazeera Net that the first stage of the process involved testing the international response to violations of the ceasefire agreement.
Instead of carrying out the gradual withdrawal expected under the agreement, Israel gradually expanded the areas under its control before moving towards more public measures as discussions began over arrangements for the second phase.
Al-Tanani estimated that the area under Israeli control had expanded from approximately 195 square kilometres to nearly 235 square kilometres.
Combined with continued bulldozing and the denial of access to broad areas, he said the expansion reflected an attempt to establish control over the land without assuming responsibility for the lives of the population.
He argued that the creation of military positions along the yellow line could represent an attempt to transform a supposedly temporary military presence into a long-term reality.
He recalled the period after 1967, when some Israeli military positions were later transformed into settler communities.
Al-Tanani concluded that the continuation of this process indicated an absence of clear signs that Israel intended to withdraw fully from the Gaza Strip.
Instead, he said, it appeared to be seeking to entrench a new reality on the ground.
Treating these developments as isolated or limited violations, he warned, could allow that reality to become permanent.
Neighbourhoods Cut Off From Essential Services
The impact of the yellow line’s expansion does not stop at military control.
It also affects the ability of local institutions to reach damaged areas and provide essential services.
Gaza Municipality says its crews can no longer access around half of the city, particularly eastern neighbourhoods such as Shujaiya, eastern Tuffah, Zeitoun and parts of Daraj.
These areas have suffered extensive destruction affecting homes, infrastructure and essential facilities.
Mohammed al-Sarsawi, head of the municipality’s media department, told Al Jazeera Net that the expanding yellow line had isolated areas containing vital infrastructure.
Municipal teams have been prevented from reaching water wells, sewage stations and major control rooms, causing a decline in the level of services available to residents.
23 Palestinians Killed in One Week
Al-Sarsawi said Gaza City now contains around 950,000 people, more than half of whom are displaced Palestinians from the city’s eastern neighbourhoods and northern Gaza.
The population has been concentrated into less than half of the city’s area, placing unprecedented pressure on water networks, sewage systems and waste collection services.
He said the expansion of the yellow line had also disrupted maintenance and rehabilitation projects planned by the municipality, as vital facilities had become difficult or impossible to reach.
The continuation of these conditions threatens to transform the collapse of basic services into a prolonged health and environmental crisis.
While the names, maps and colours may change, the yellow line continues to advance through fire, leaving behind Palestinians killed by Israeli forces, isolated communities and lives suspended under permanent threat.
Between 13 and 20 July, the United Nations Human Rights Office documented the killing of 23 Palestinians near the yellow line.
UN figures also indicate that approximately one-third of the 1,168 Palestinians killed since the ceasefire began, as recorded by Monday, were killed in areas close to the line.
