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<h1 class="gmail-single_title">Slow expansion east of Gaza: Shifting the \u201cYellow Line\u201d turns land into political leverage</h1>
<p class="gmail-single_date">Thursday 27-November-2025</p>
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<p>GAZA, (PIC)</p>
<p>Residents of Gaza City\u2019s Shujaiya neighborhood say they were alarmed
this week as Israeli military vehicles pushed the yellow concrete blocks
markers of the so-called \u201cyellow line\u201d several dozen meters deeper into
their area.</p>
<p>Ibrahim Farhat said he panicked when he heard tanks approaching and
later saw the blocks being moved closer to his home. \u201cThey used to be
about a kilometer away. Now gunfire reaches our house. It\u2019s a huge
danger,\u201d he said.</p>
<p>For Shujaiya\u2019s residents, the sudden appearance of these
yellow-painted blocks outside their homes signals that they are now
living on the edge of an active military zone directly adjacent to the
Israeli withdrawal line defined in the first phase of the ceasefire
agreement.</p>
<p>Among them is Salem al-Jarjawi, who had been living 700 meters from
the line in a shelter camp near Shujaiya Park. He and his family now
find themselves only steps away from Israeli vehicles that fire
relentlessly through the night.</p>
<p>\u201cA week ago, we thought we wouldn\u2019t survive until morning,\u201d he said.
\u201cWe can\u2019t flee again we have no strength or money left. This advance has
suffocated us: the shelling and shooting have become terrifying.\u201d</p>
<p>The elderly man says his family has nowhere left to go. \u201cWe\u2019ve fled
to every possible place. Nights feel like death. After sunset it\u2019s total
darkness, no light, and moving around is dangerous.\u201d</p>
<p>Pointing toward a nearby Israeli position, he said, \u201cEvery movement
feels monitored. The tower is aimed at us, the vehicles and drones are
overhead. Before the expansion, bombs fell farther away. Now shrapnel
reaches the camp.\u201d</p>
<p>Across Shujaiya, widespread destruction is visible. An Israeli post
on Jabal al-Mantar overlooks large parts of the neighborhood, and the
distance between the shelter camp and the military site has become so
small that residents\u2019 movement is severely restricted.</p>
<p class="gmail-has-vivid-red-color gmail-has-text-color gmail-has-link-color gmail-wp-elements-1ff5910e989a6c841ee3ec8185072225">Displacement without a destination</p>
<p>Fadi Harara said he saw a tank and accompanying vehicles pushing the
yellow blocks forward. Like many others, he immediately decided to leave
without knowing where to go fearing troops would advance toward his
home.</p>
<p>His neighbor, Akram Jarada, said, \u201cI\u2019ve been displaced 16 times since
October 7 street to street, city to city, from north to south.\u201d</p>
<p>\u201cThe army wants to keep pushing toward the yellow line,\u201d he said.
\u201cThey\u2019re putting all of us, children, women, elderly, the sick in
constant danger.\u201d</p>
<p>The Israeli military says the changes amount only to \u201cadjusting the
yellow line,\u201d which marks the area it currently controls, which is more
than half of Gaza\u2019s territory.</p>
<p class="gmail-has-vivid-red-color gmail-has-text-color gmail-has-link-color gmail-wp-elements-95210786f5ee9a5de59ef74b25d9314a">Families trapped in expanding military zones</p>
<p>Last Friday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Israel has deployed additional forces along the yellow line.</p>
<p>The line marks the edge of the zone from which Israeli forces
withdrew under the truce, giving them effective control over 53\u201358
percent of the Gaza Strip.</p>
<p>Under the ceasefire agreement brokered with the United States and
others, Israel is expected to pull back further as part of the first
phase linked to the release of detainees.</p>
<p>Gaza\u2019s Government Media Office (GMO) said Israel has expanded the
yellow security zone by moving concrete blocks about 300 meters deeper
into the neighborhoods of Ash-Sha\u2018f, An-Nazzaz, and Baghdad Street.</p>
<p>In data released on November 20, the Office said the army\u2019s
incursions into residential areas have trapped families that could not
evacuate before tanks advanced. It also noted that this expansion came
just a day after 25 Palestinians were killed in airstrikes on Gaza City
and Khan Yunis, another violation of the truce.</p>
<p>The GMO has documented more than 500 Israeli ceasefire violations, resulting in over 300 deaths and hundreds of injuries.</p>
<p class="gmail-has-vivid-red-color gmail-has-text-color gmail-has-link-color gmail-wp-elements-4773a0fd1633c31c68eb310ee44c4326">A slow, calculated strategy</p>
<p>Military researcher Rami Abu Zubayda says the Israeli advance east of
Gaza City is part of a slow, deliberate strategy designed to change the
reality on the ground without officially declaring new lines of
deployment.</p>
<p>\u201cThis is not a temporary battlefield tactic,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a
systematic approach to impose new facts under the cover of a ceasefire.\u201d</p>
<p>He explained that Israel aims to turn the current lines into fixed
operational boundaries offering better surveillance and control keeping
its forces ready for offensive action without triggering a full-scale
war.</p>
<p>By pushing the yellow line westward, he added, Israel seeks to widen
its security buffer inside Gaza, creating large depopulated areas that
serve as separation zones and early-warning fields. These spaces allow
the army to position troops, run reconnaissance and engineering units,
and launch strikes without direct contact with resistance fighters.</p>
<p>The strategy, he said, gives Israel greater ability to isolate
eastern Gaza City neighborhoods and sustain pressure on civilian and
economic life turning territory itself into a bargaining chip in future
political negotiations.</p>
<p>Abu Zubayda warned that the expansion is \u201cnot a small tactical move
but an attempt to redraw Gaza\u2019s map,\u201d with major consequences, including
the displacement of hundreds of families from areas where Israeli
forces are advancing, deepening an already severe humanitarian crisis.</p>
<p>Israel currently maintains around 40 active military sites behind the
yellow line, the informal boundary set during the first phase of the
truce.</p>
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