A growing row of yellow-painted concrete blocks is splitting the Gaza Strip in two. The Israeli army places one every two hundred meters, each block has a yellow metal sign that extends three and a half meters into the air. In this way, the previously imaginary ‘yellow line’, behind which the Israeli troops withdrew earlier this month, is slowly taking physical form.
The markings are there for the good of the Palestinians, Israel explains. People are still killed almost every day because Israeli soldiers open fire on anyone who approaches the demarcation line. And it is not always clear where the Israeli occupation zone begins. The yellow concrete blocks should provide a solution to this.
A less sympathetic explanation is that the yellow blocks are the beginning of a permanent Israeli occupation of more than half of the coastal strip. When the truce faltered last week and Israel bombed Gaza again on a large scale on Tuesday night, it also threatened to move across the yellow line to occupy a larger area of the coastal strip.
Where does the idea of the yellow line come from? And what does this division mean for the future of Gaza?
1 Why is the line yellow?
The yellow line comes from US President Donald Trump’s twenty-point plan to end the war in Gaza. That plan includes a map showing in primary colors the different phases of the intended withdrawal of the Israeli army.
The yellow line lies between a blue line (the position of the Israeli troops before the ceasefire) and a red line (the next border behind which the army must withdraw). Ultimately, the plan calls for the Israeli army to withdraw to a buffer zone along the border of the coastal strip.
Besides the withdrawal of the Israeli army behind the yellow line, only a number of other points from Trump’s plan have been implemented during this first phase of the ceasefire. The second phase is still being discussed. “Should negotiations for the second phase of the truce fail, the yellow markers could quickly become a permanent border,” said Yoav Zitun, defense reporter for the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth. “This effectively shrinks Gaza and enlarges the western Israeli Negev desert.”
2 Where exactly should the line be?
That’s not entirely clear. Initially, Trump’s plan included only a rough outline of the location of the Yellow Line, rather than a detailed map based on coordinates. A week later, the American president shared a more detailed map on his social network Truth Social, but the line is slightly different. The Israeli army then published a third version on October 14, with a slightly different line.
Sorry, we can’t play the video.
Try reloading the page
or try again later.
The Israeli army marks the yellow line with concrete blocks.
Image handout Ministry of Defense Israel/Reuters
According to the latter map, Israel still controls 53 percent of the Gaza Strip. Moreover, it turns out from research by the BBC that the yellow concrete blocks that the Israeli army is now placing are several hundred meters from the line on the Israeli map. According to the BBC, Israel claims additional territory.
3 On which side of the line are the Gazan people?
Almost all two million Gazans are west of the yellow line, on the side of the sea. In recent weeks, Hamas managed to regain power in that area. Just like before the war, Hamas police officers and fighters patrol the streets.
4 What does the ‘Israeli side’ of the yellow line look like?
It has been largely destroyed. Yet there are still Palestinian civilians there. At the start of the truce, occupied Rafah and Khan Younis still had about thirty thousand people. They are free to cross the yellow line into Hamas-controlled territory, the Israeli military said, but are not allowed to return afterward.
In addition to Israeli soldiers, there are several armed Palestinian groups on the east side of the line. Israel supports these groups with weapons and money to counterbalance Hamas. This includes the People’s Armed Forces of gang leader Yasser Abu Shabab, with hundreds of fighters.
5 Is the yellow line in danger of becoming permanent?
That’s not entirely clear. Both US Vice President JD Vance and Trump’s son-in-law and Middle East envoy Jared Kushner suggested during their visit to Israel last week that the reconstruction of Gaza could already begin behind the yellow line, in areas under the control of the Israeli army.
The idea is that this would offer Gazans an attractive alternative to Hamas rule. Amit Segal, a right-wing Israeli journalist close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, spoke in a podcast The New York Times already the comparison with East and West Berlin in the last century. In this scenario, the yellow line is a kind of Berlin Wall, with Gazans as East Berliners, yearning for a life on the other side of the divide.
Also read
Mayor of Gaza City: ‘Reconstruction is pointless without consultation with the Palestinians’
6 What do the Palestinians themselves think of that idea?
As with previous plans for the future of Gaza, this is not asked of the population. Palestinians and Arab countries involved in discussions about Gaza fear that reconstruction on only one side of the line will entrench the Israeli occupation of half the coastal strip. That is why those Arab countries are critical of Kushner and Vance’s suggestion.
“I don’t see any reconstruction in Gaza, or even relief efforts, succeeding without the Palestinians themselves being involved,” Raja Khalidi, director of the Palestinian Institute for Economic Policy Research in Ramallah, told Reuters. NRC.
“It is not a serious proposal,” said Khalidi, but just another trial balloon. “Just like former US President Joe Biden’s pier [waar schepen met humanitaire hulp hadden moeten aanmeren] or the GHF food points.” Around these points, hundreds of Palestinians seeking help were killed in recent months by shelling by the Israeli army.
An additional problem is that Gaza’s fertile agricultural lands are often located in the Israeli-occupied zone. According to critics, it does not make sense to build there, instead of in the original urban areas closer to the coast.
Sorry, we can’t play the video.
Try reloading the page
or try again later.
The Israeli army places concrete blocks every two hundred meters in the Gaza Strip to mark the yellow line.
Image Reuters
7 After an interim period under international rule, Gaza should become part of a Palestinian state. Is that off track?
Not if it is up to the Americans. The US is still in talks with Arab and Muslim countries to find soldiers for an international stabilization force that would enable the further withdrawal of the Israeli army from Gaza.
Those conversations are difficult. For example, Turkey has shown itself to be willing to send troops, but Israel does not want to hear about it because of its poor relationship with that country. Other countries fear they are sending their troops into a hornet’s nest, with Hamas refusing to disarm and continuing to bomb Israel.
NEW: Give this item as a gift
As an NRC subscriber you can subscribe every month 10 articles give as a gift to someone without an NRC subscription. The recipient can read the article directly, without a paywall.