Fears Gaza ‘temporary’ ceasefire line could become permanent new border | Gaza

A. The so-called temporary yellow line marking the ceasefire in Gaza is taking on an increasingly physical form as the unstable ceasefire shows signs that it could have dramatic consequences for the future of Palestine.

Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) troops began placing yellow concrete signs every 200 meters to indicate the area that remained under Israeli control during the first phase of the ceasefire.

The line roughly divides Gaza in two. In the western sector, Hamas is trying to reassert its control in the vacuum left by Israel’s partial withdrawal, carrying out public executions of rival militias or gang members it claims are supported by Israel.

In the other half of Gaza, which covers the eastern strip as well as the northern and southern borders, the IDF is reinforcing numerous military outposts and opening fire on anyone who approaches the line, whether marked with yellow blocks or not.

“In our area, the yellow lines are not clearly visible. We don’t know where they start and end. I think they are clearer in other places, but nothing is defined here,” said Mohammad Khaled Abu al-Hussain, a 31-year-old father of five. His family’s home is in Al Qararah, north of Khan Younis, in IDF-controlled territory, just east of the yellow line.

“As soon as we approach our homes, bullets start flying from all directions, and sometimes small drones, namely quadcopters, hover above us and watch our every move,” he said. “I was with my friend yesterday and we suddenly came under intense gun fire. We threw ourselves on the ground and stayed there until the fire stopped. I couldn’t reach my house.

“For me, it feels like the war isn’t over yet. What’s the point of a ceasefire if I still can’t go home?”

“It hurts me to see people on my way returning to their homes while I’m stuck between hope and fear. But what worries me most is the thought that this line will continue, that no decision will allow us to return.”

The free-fire policy, ordered by Israeli defense minister Israel Katz, followed an attack in the southern city of Rafah on Sunday, October 19, in which two Israeli soldiers were killed.

Two weeks after the ceasefire, more than 20 Palestinians are still killed on average every day, most of them close to the yellow line. As a result, very few of the displaced return to Israeli-controlled territory.

The political obstacles to moving to the second phase of the ceasefire, which would include disarming Hamas and replacing it with a multinational stabilization force and withdrawing the IDF from the yellow line to positions closer to the Gaza border, remain enormous. The right wing of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition strongly opposes further withdrawal and internationalization of control over Gaza.

In this impasse, the yellow line continues to take on a more permanent form and is increasingly referred to as the “new border” in the Israeli media.

Yoav Zitun, military correspondent for Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, predicted that the yellow line could turn into “a high and sophisticated barrier that would shrink the Gaza Strip, expand the western Negev and allow the construction of Israeli settlements there.”

“This is like a de facto trickle-down annexation of Gaza,” said Jeremy Konyndyk, president of the advocacy group Refugees International and a former U.S. aid official.

According to the terms of the US-brokered ceasefire that came into force on October 10, the withdrawal of the Israeli Armed Forces to the yellow line will cause Israel to occupy 53% of the Gaza Strip. BBC satellite analysis Each of the new yellow signs indicated that they were placed several hundred meters beyond the proposed line, representing a significant land grab.

An IDF spokesman said there was no official comment on the BBC report. An earlier statement from the IDF stated that work had begun to mark the yellow line with a “concrete barrier with a yellow painted pole 3.5 meters high” for the sole purpose of “providing tactical clarity in the field”.

It is clear that Gaza is increasingly divided, with most of the 2.1 million surviving population squeezed into half the territory amid the ruins left by two years of Israeli bombardment.

“From what we are told, the yellow line is located about 1 km from Salah al-Din Street,” Ayman Abu Mandeel said, referring to the main street that runs from south to north through the middle of the Gaza Strip.

Abu Mandeel is 58, has nine children, and has the ruins of a house in eastern Al Qararah, but little hope of returning there anytime soon. “The Israeli army has set up cranes, watchtowers and tanks there. They monitor every movement and open fire on anyone who approaches.”

“We haven’t seen the yellow signs ourselves because anyone trying to reach these areas is immediately targeted,” he said. “Quadcopters do not hesitate to shoot at anyone who comes towards them, as if approaching our own territory is a crime.”

The uncertainty of the ceasefire lies at the heart of continued division and violence. The “Trump peace plan” was a list of 20 principles and goals, but there was no order or sense of how one goal might follow another.

“It’s incredibly vague,” said Rohan Talbot, director of advocacy and communications for the charity Medical Aid to Palestinians. “We are now in a period where many different actors, including the Israeli government, Americans, the international community and humanitarian actors, are competing to interpret and influence what happens next.

“One of the guiding principles that we must appreciate, based on decades of bitter experience, is that everything temporary in the occupied Palestinian territories very quickly becomes permanent.”

Meanwhile, the status quo prevents at least half of Gaza’s population from being able to return to their homes or even consider rebuilding. The hopes raised by the ceasefire are rapidly fading.

“Every time we try to get closer to home, we see new destruction, new bombardment and new advances of military vehicles. The bombardment from artillery, tanks and drones did not stop, as if the war had never ended,” said Salah Abu Salah from Abasan al-Kabira in eastern Khan Younis, which is currently on the “wrong” side of the yellow line.

“I can’t help but fear that the military now intends to create new borders that we will never be allowed to cross again.”