Israel Is Rapidly Turning the Yellow Line Into a Permanent Border in Gaza

Honest, paywall-free news is rare. Please support our boldly independent journalism with a donation of any size. During a creative and journalistic writing training program I joined in Gaza City to nurture the skills of emerging writers, one seat remained empty, session after session. It belonged to Sarah, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, and who never managed to escape the brunt of Israeli violence long enough to attend a single session.

Sarah currently lives with her family in a half-demolished home just a few meters from the “Yellow Line” — the ever-shifting, poorly demarcated boundary marked by yellow concrete blocks that is intended to separate areas under Israeli military control from the rest of the Gaza Strip. Her family was forced to return there after enduring the grim realities of life in displacement camps. Caught between two impossible choices, Sarah lamented, “Venturing outside my home may cost me my life.”

When I reached out to her, curious to know why she had been unable to attend a writing program that remains a distant dream for hundreds of writers, she replied in a grieving voice: “I live beside the Yellow Line in the south, while the sessions are held in Gaza City, and the killing machine is waiting outside my home.” She described the incessant rattling of drones overhead, the deafening echoes of explosions, the ever-present threat of being targeted by a quadcopter, and the anguished cries of grieving mothers, bereaved fathers, and frightened children.

Related Story News | War & Peace “The Hall Turned Red”: Survivors Recount Israeli Strike on University in Gaza “I still remember the bombing, the sound of people screaming, and the sight of the injured,” said one student. By Ohood Nassar , T ruthout November 6, 2026 “Together, these sounds, mingled with deep-seated fear, have turned even the most mundane activities indispensable to our survival into perilous undertakings.” Meanwhile, the rumbling of bulldozers and the scraping of earth intruded upon Sarah’s daily life.

From her window, she watched as a new earthen berm gradually took shape, rising higher and stretching farther with each passing day. “The Yellow Line keeps creeping forward, while a new earthen berm rises day by day, obscuring our view of what lies beyond it,” Sarah said. Citing satellite imagery supplied by Planet Labs PBC in July 2026, an Associated Press investigation revealed the construction of a new earthen barrier, resembling a physical border, along stretches of the Yellow Line — a supposedly temporary demarcation separating Israeli-controlled territory from the rest of Gaza pending further withdrawals under the U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement — and in some places beyond it.

These tall sand embankments cut through demolished Palestinian communities, further entrenching Israel’s expanding area of control. According to the investigation, the earthen berms have been constructed near Rafah, across Khan Younis, and stretch northward toward Gaza City. By July 2026, they extended for more than 23 kilometers (14 miles), equivalent to more than half the length of Gaza’s approximately 40-kilometer coastline. These tall sand embankments cut through demolished Palestinian communities, further entrenching Israel’s expanding area of control.

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, access-restricted areas had grown to encompass 65 percent of the Gaza Strip by June 2026. Meanwhile, Israeli forces continue clearing and demolishing Palestinian land and homes, in what humanitarian experts describe as a scorched-earth policy and ethnic cleansing. “My neighborhood was once marked by greenhouses, towering green trees, and flourishing gardens.

But it truly breaks my heart to scan the horizon and not catch sight of even a centimeter of greenery anymore,” Sarah said, her voice quivering. “My life is now colored only in grey and blood.” It appears that Israel has been constructing this barrier since February 2026, justifying its construction on security grounds and equipping it with intelligence and technological assets. Yet this justification is flatly contradicted by the mounting death toll among Gazans near the Yellow Line and its designation as a killing zone for Palestinians attempting to check on their homes or salvage the remnants of their belongings.

“But where can we go?” Sarah told Truthout . “Here, the danger is escalating, and nowhere promises safety. Where else are we supposed to go?” The continued expansion of the earthen berms has fueled growing concerns among Gazans that this supposedly temporary demarcation may morph into a permanent border. For Abu Ammar Fares, a 68-year-old retired teacher who has witnessed firsthand some of the most defining turning points in Palestinian history — from the 1967 war and the Al-Aqsa Intifada to the successive wars and military offensives waged on Gaza — this growing fear carries the weight of decades of lived experience.

Yet Fares’s turmoil has only deepened since he fled his four-story home in eastern Al-Bureij refugee camp on October 7, 2023, a house that now lies in ruins beyond the Yellow Line. “I desperately wished to return to my home, even if it lay in rubble. But the new earthen border has dashed my hopes,” he told Truthout . The second phase of the U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement, which was supposed to pave the way for Israel’s withdrawal toward Gaza’s borders according to the agreed-upon road map, remains stagnant.

Israel continues its attacks and maintains its grip over large swathes of Gaza, while disputes over Hamas’s disarmament remain unresolved. “I was cautiously hopeful about the agreement’s phased withdrawal when it was first proposed,” Fares remarked. “But what has unfolded on the ground is in stark contrast to what was promised. Instead of withdrawing, Israel is expanding its control beyond the Yellow Line by erecting more physical barriers and shifting the boundaries further into Gaza.”

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir openly celebrated Israel’s expanding territorial control over Gaza, declaring, “Gaza is ours.” As a result, Fares has been unable to find a way to check on the ruins of his home. “Getting close to the earthen berms and the Yellow Line is tantamount to throwing yourself into the jaws of death,” he said. Like hundreds of thousands of other Palestinians whose homes and belongings lie beyond the newly constructed earthen embankments, Fares fears that Israel is quietly plundering their land.

“I don’t think any of us can call anything our own anymore beyond the Yellow Line,” he said. He went on to recall what followed the 1967 war, from the construction of Israeli settlements to Israel robbing Palestinians of their belongings and seizing their lands. “A similar scenario is being repeated,” Fares warned. But for Kawthar Sader, a Palestinian lawyer, the expression “loss of property” is a misuse of terminology. She argues that it is more precise to say that Palestinians are being deprived of access to, possession of, and enjoyment of their property.

“The distinction between the two is fundamental. The former implies that the right has ceased to exist, while the latter means that the right remains intact. Our role is to preserve that right, keep it alive, and seek compensation for the damage resulting from deprivation of property rights,” she explained. “I do not see the Yellow Line or the earthen berms as political borders, nor do they confer sovereignty or erase Palestinians’ ownership rights over their land,” Sader continued.

Yet the entrenchment of these physical barriers, coupled with statements from senior Israeli officials, has raised further concerns. Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir openly celebrated Israel’s expanding territorial control over Gaza, calling for the establishment of Israeli settlements throughout the enclave and declaring, “Gaza is ours.” “From a legal standpoint, even if the ceasefire process remains stagnant, this does not give the Israeli military the green light to plunder Palestinian land or disregard international law,” Sader explained.

Under Article 53 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, the occupying power is prohibited from destroying private or public property unless such destruction is rendered absolutely necessary by military operations. Sader stressed that the legal standard is not whether the destruction is politically beneficial, serves security interests, or is militarily convenient, but whether it is absolutely necessary for military operations. “But if the destruction is willful, unjustified by military necessity, and carried out unlawfully and wantonly, Article 147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention serves as a litmus test,” she added.

That provision classifies extensive destruction and appropriation of property, when unjustified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly, as a grave breach of international humanitarian law. “This is precisely what we are witnessing in Israel’s actions in constructing the illegal earthen berms,” she argued. Sader concluded that satellite imagery provides incriminating evidence of what she described as egregious acts committed by Israeli occupation forces.

“And this is where the battle to preserve our rights begins,” she stressed. “It does not begin merely with the removal of the earthen berms, but long before that, with the preservation of evidence.” “Every property deed, every map, every official record, every satellite image, every certificate, every civil registry document, and every photograph of a home before it was reduced to rubble serves as evidence of Palestinians’ ownership of their land and their enduring ties to it.

Palestinians must never relinquish their rights,” she added. “Nothing is promising. One hour brings a glimmer of relief, and the very next brings the fear of genocide resuming,” Fares said. His voice cracking, he added, “We are fed up with tomorrow. We are fed up with the status quo. We are fed up with all the agreements that have never materialized. For one hour, we allow ourselves to feel optimistic, while for the rest of the day, we remain constantly on edge.”

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Required: You must preserve the article exactly as it appears on our site. You cannot edit, shorten or otherwise alter the content. Required: You must clearly credit the author(s) and retain their byline. Prohibited: You cannot republish our photographs or illustrations without specific permission. Prohibited: You cannot use this work for commercial purposes. Article HTML Republish HTML code for copying <h1>Israel Is Rapidly Turning the Yellow Line Into a Permanent Border in Gaza</h1> <p><strong>By Hend Salama Abo Helow</strong></p> <p><em>This article was originally published by </em> <a href src="https://truthout.org/articles/israel-is-rapidly-turning-the-yellow-line-into-a-permanent-border-in-gaza/">Truthout</a></p> <p><strong><p>Israel is building an earthen wall along the line that marks the ever-expanding territory within Gaza that it controls.</p></strong></p> <p class="wp-block-paragraph">During a creative and journalistic writing training program I joined in Gaza City to nurture the skills of emerging writers, one seat remained empty, session after session.

It belonged to Sarah, whose name has been changed to