Afrasianet - Yusra Al-Aklouk - In Gaza, it is enough for the Israeli occupation army to move a few meters of yellow cement cubes, so that the geography on the ground changes, turning an area on which Palestinians were standing yesterday into an area that they are forbidden to approach the next day.
Cubes placed with the ceasefire agreement as field markers separating the areas of deployment of the occupation forces and the areas from which they were supposed to withdraw in preparation for the full withdrawal in the second phase of the agreement, have turned today into a line advancing on the ground, defending the borders of Israeli control deep into the Gaza Strip.
The danger is no longer limited to the location of the cubes: OCHA maps capture a wider range of access restrictions, known as the Orange Line, that includes areas between the positions of Israeli forces and the surrounding danger zones.
According to the latest OCHA maps, these restricted access areas extended to about 64.9% of the Gaza Strip until June 2026, up from 53% in previous stages, reflecting the expansion of the areas where Palestinians are now deprived of access or free movement.
But the lines drawn on the maps are not just theoretical limits; they become a daily reality in the lives of Gazans, snatching the crumbs of what is left of their lives.
Families in the Danger Zone
In Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, where the area has been witnessing the largest wave of progress to the Yellow Line in recent days, some families found themselves overnight inside its border, after their homes and agricultural lands were outside it a few days ago.
On the night of Friday, July 17, the area witnessed a new transformation, according to the testimonies of its residents, after "Quad Helicopter" drones launched calls for residents to evacuate to the west of the city, threatening to shoot at those who remained in the area.
Hazem Saeed, a resident of East Deir al-Balah, told Al Jazeera Net that Israeli military vehicles advanced during the night hours from the Abu Hammam site east of the city towards the areas covered by the evacuation orders, before moving the yellow concrete blocks to a distance of between 300 and 350 meters to the west, which led to the introduction of new areas of agricultural land and residential areas within the line of the line.
According to the Gazan citizen, this advance affected lands belonging to the families of Abu Gharaba, Abu Ghaliba, Abu Blima, Bin Saeed and Tarhouni, after the blocks were placed near the Ottoman Sultan Street, a few meters away from the citizens' homes.
"There are families who have woken up to find their homes along the Yellow Line, and some houses are only two to four metres away from it, and many have lost their agricultural land, which was their only source of livelihood," he said.
Saeed pointed out that the occupation forces withdrew at dawn today after extensive razing operations in those lands, leaving a new reality in which additional areas of Deir al-Balah were gnawed, and in which proximity to the line means the loss of both land and the source of life.
On the line of fire
The extension of the Yellow Line was not limited to Deir al-Balah, as in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, east of Gaza City, dozens of families have been living in direct contact with it for months, monitoring its approach day by day, while the recent movements have pushed more families to displace.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) announced that Israeli authorities have issued new evacuation orders for families near the yellow line in the neighbourhood, displacing more than 30 families after their tents were destroyed over the past two days.
Just about 70 meters from the Yellow Line, 71 families set up a camp called "People of Steadfastness", where the name was not a slogan but a description of the reality of its residents, after finding themselves in the line of fire, in the absence of basic services and the difficulty of movement.
In the camp, located on Salah al-Din Street near the Zaytoun Club, camp supervisor Ramadan Abu Ammo told Al Jazeera Net that the residents chose not to stay because it was safe, but because they could not find another place to move.
He says: "We carry our souls on our palms, but where do we go? We don't have a second place," but shrapnel falls almost daily, and the sounds of shelling have become part of the details of daily life.
His house next to the camp collapsed on top of his parents, who are still under the rubble, after rescue crews could not reach the area classified as a dangerous area by aid organizations.
Creeping death
Among the residents of the Zaytoun neighborhood who insist on staying near the Yellow Line, journalist Saed Hasballah lives close to the "People of Resilience" camp, and describes what is happening as a "creeping death", as the advance of the yellow concrete blocks is preceded by heavy shelling and gunfire.
The Palestinian journalist told Al Jazeera Net that the residents not only face the danger of shelling and shooting, but also live under constant pressure to push them to leave, pointing out that the bullets are now directly targeting the houses, leaving martyrs and wounded.
He adds: "The occupation wants to destroy us by force, but the people are clinging to their land."
Leveling houses with land
In the northern Gaza Strip, the progress of the Yellow Line was not limited to moving the concrete blocks forward, but was accompanied by a complete change in the features of the land, as the areas adjacent to it were turned into an open military space in which buildings were removed, earthen berms were erected, and watchtowers were erected, making any movement of civilians exposed to the occupation forces.
Suhail Odeh, a resident of the northern Gaza Strip, told Al Jazeera Net that the Yellow Line advances a distance of between 1000 and 1500 meters in their area, compared to the early days of the ceasefire agreement, as it extended along Sikka Street to Beit Hanoun, while today it reaches Al-Terrance Street up to Sheikh Zayed Roundabout.
According to Odeh, the line is not only relocation, but also extends to erasing the entire area's features, as Israeli bulldozers work on an almost daily basis to level the houses to the ground, and even the buildings that were partially standing at the beginning of the construction of the Yellow Line are now left stone upon stone.
He points out that demolitions are sometimes supplemented by sending "quadcopter" planes to the houses behind the line and detonating them remotely, while the bulldozing operations continue and the removal of the remaining landmarks of the place.
Military fortifications
Odeh also pointed out that the occupation forces erected huge earthen berms on the heights of Tal al-Za'atar and erected watchtowers behind them, in addition to other fortifications throughout the area, which provided them with direct supervision of the vicinity of the Yellow Line, and facilitated sniping and shooting operations that have become targeting civilians on an almost daily basis.
The movement of tanks, bulldozers and soldiers has become a daily sight for residents who still live only about 100 metres from the Yellow Line, despite the dangers and lack of resources, he said.
He indicates that the area has turned into a continuous surveillance and control area, with the presence of local armed groups loyal to the occupation, according to his testimony, carrying out infiltration, arrests and assaults against young men on the outskirts adjacent to the line, before handing over some of them to the Israeli army.
According to the spokesman, the past few days witnessed the arrest of a young man from the vicinity of Al-Janzir roundabout in Beit Lahiya, where he was beaten, assaulted and threatened his family through a phone call, before he was handed over to the Israeli army, according to him.
From a field line to a political reality
Israel's territorial expansion of the Yellow Line is not only read as a military move on the ground, but observers see it as a path that reshapes the maps of de facto control over the Gaza Strip, imposing a new reality that goes beyond undeclared field movements to a clearer policy linked to expanding control.
Political analyst Ahmed Al-Tanani told Al Jazeera Net that the first phase of this process was to test international reactions to excesses related to the ceasefire agreement, by replacing the supposed gradual withdrawal with a gradual expansion of the areas of control, before later moving on to more public steps with talk of the arrangements for the second phase.
According to his estimates, the expansion of the area of Israeli control from about 195 square kilometers to about 235 square kilometers, in conjunction with the continuation of bulldozing operations and the denial of access to large areas, reflects an attempt to impose a reality in which control of the land is separate from the responsibility of managing the lives of the residents.
The establishment of military posts along the Yellow Line could be an attempt to turn a temporary military presence into a long-term reality, he said, recalling the experience after 1967, when some Israeli military posts later turned into settlement clusters.
Al-Tanani concludes that the continuation of this path indicates, according to his reading, that there are no clear indications of a full Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, but rather an attempt to establish a new reality on the ground, warning that treating these developments as mere limited violations may allow this reality to be consolidated.
Neighborhoods without services
The impact of the extension of the Yellow Line is not limited to the limits of military control, but also extends to the ability of local institutions to access affected areas and provide basic services.
The Gaza Municipality says its crews are unable to reach about half of the city's area, especially the eastern neighborhoods such as Shujaiya, Eastern Apple, Zaytoun, and parts of the Daraj neighborhood, which have been extensively destroyed by housing, infrastructure and basic facilities.
The head of the media department at the Gaza Municipality, Mohammed al-Sarsawi, told Al Jazeera Net that the expansion of the Yellow Line led to the isolation of areas with vital facilities, and prevented crews from accessing water wells, sewage stations and main control rooms, which was reflected in the decline in the level of services provided to residents.
23 Martyrs in a Week
Al-Sarsawi added that Gaza City is home to about 950,000 people, more than half of whom are displaced people coming from the eastern neighborhoods of the city and the northern Gaza Strip, which caused the population density to be concentrated within less than half of the city's area, and imposed unprecedented pressure on water, sewage and waste collection networks.
Al-Sarsawi stressed that the expansion of the Yellow Line has led to the disruption of maintenance and rehabilitation projects that the municipality was planning to implement, after vital facilities became located within hard-to-reach areas, pointing out that the continuation of this reality threatens to turn the service crisis into a long-term health and environmental crisis.
As names, maps and colors change, the yellow line advances with fire, leaving behind martyrs, isolated areas and suspended lives.
Between July 13 and 20, the UN Human Rights Office documented the deaths of 23 Palestinians near the Yellow Line, while UN figures indicate that about a third of the 1,168 Palestinians killed since the ceasefire began as of Monday fell in areas near the Yellow Line.
Source: Al Jazeera
