Israel Katz Rejects Withdrawal From Gaza, Lebanon, Syria Security Zones

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said Israel will not withdraw from the “security zones” in Lebanon, Syria and the Gaza Strip, framing the policy as a doctrine of acting against “near and distant threats” and seeking “decisive victory” rather than compromise.

Katz’s remarks came as he described the United States as working toward an agreement with Iran and said Israel must retain the ability to act independently against Iran if necessary, while also directing the Israel Defense Forces to prepare for different scenarios.

Al Jazeera

In a separate thread of analysis, Al Jazeera’s open-source investigation unit reported that Israeli military maps have failed to reflect the true extent of control since the war on Gaza began on October 7, 2023, and said the de facto footprint across Gaza, southern Lebanon and southern Syria covers approximately 1,000sq km.

Al Jazeera said the investigation compared official Israeli maps published after ceasefire agreements with satellite imagery, GIS techniques, and ACLED statistics, and described a gap between declared boundaries and actual ground operations.

Ehab Jabareen, an expert in Israeli affairs, told Al Jazeera that “The political establishment announces the Yellow Line to Washington and mediators… but the military shifts it on the ground under the pretext of operational needs,” linking the “Yellow Line” to a broader pattern of shifting control.

Al Jazeera reported that in Gaza the Israeli military introduced a “Yellow Line” following an October 2025 ceasefire agreement to delineate control over roughly 200sq km, but said physical markers were “routinely pushed beyond these limits.”

The investigation said that in northern Gaza Israel expanded its control from 67.3sq km to 73.9sq km, ultimately swallowing 54.7 percent of the north, and it cited satellite imagery confirming extensive, unannounced demolitions outside declared military zones such as in the Shujayea neighbourhood.

Al Jazeera

In southern Lebanon, Al Jazeera said official maps claimed a buffer zone of 570sq km, while satellite images captured soon afterwards showed building demolitions in towns located explicitly outside the declared lines, including Zawtar al-Sharqiya.

Al Jazeera also quoted Ehab Jabareen describing the pattern as “calculated chaos” and “strategic deception,” and said Israel seeks the results of an occupation without officially declaring one.

The same Al Jazeera report described the “Yellow Line” as part of a wider approach in which diplomats claim compliance while the military “devours geography,” with geography presented as a substitute for victory.

Beyond Gaza, Al Jazeera said its investigation found a “silent” Syrian front where, unlike Gaza and Lebanon, there is no declared “Yellow Line,” and instead Israel built a continuous network of fixed military outposts beyond the “alpha” line—the 1974 disengagement boundary.

Al Jazeera reported that this created a de facto control zone of 235sq km stretching from Jabal al-Sheikh (Mount Hermon) to the Yarmouk River, and it said the investigation documented more than 800 Israeli incursions into Syrian territory between December 2024 and January 2026.

In the same report, Jabareen characterized the Syrian front as a “low-noise occupation,” arguing that operating without official declarations helps avoid turning incursions into a rigid international legal issue.

Separately, Al Arabiya Television’s Misbar team documentation said areas under direct Israeli occupation or military influence exceed 1,100 square kilometers across Gaza, Lebanon and Syria, describing attempts to entrench security belts and zones of influence spanning more than one front.

The stakes, as framed by Al Jazeera, are that the territorial expansion is designed to mask Israel’s inability to achieve its stated war objectives and to impose new realities on the ground while avoiding international accountability.