The Electronic Intifada 21 November 2025
A yellow-painted concrete block marks the invisible line dividing Gaza, beyond which the Israeli military is warning people they may be killed.
APA imagesWhether or not the US-brokered ceasefire in Gaza moves into a second phase, people in Gaza have been left in little doubt as to what the present phase entails.
“When we see an adult suspect, we shoot. A child with a donkey, we arrest.”
“Why not shoot a child with a donkey?”
“Who should we shoot first: the child or the donkey?”
This exchange reportedly took place between Tamir Yadai (the Israeli military’s deputy chief of staff), Itamar Ben-Gvir (Israel’s national security minister) and another government official during an Israeli security cabinet meeting in Tel Aviv on 23 October.
Military officials were briefing ministers on the “rules” of engagement near the newly established “yellow line” in Gaza, though Israel has been breaching the ceasefire throughout Gaza on a daily basis, killing more than 260 people since 10 October, when it came into effect.
This yellow boundary has marked the zone to which Israeli forces withdrew in the first phase of the agreement. It puts more than half of Gaza under Israeli control, stretching across the north, center and south of the coastal strip.
The yellow line is deadly. Many people were shot while checking on their homes in neighborhoods of Gaza City and Khan Younis, unaware that they had crossed into a restricted zone.
The division of Gaza is intended to be temporary, to hold only until the next stage of the agreement, when Israeli forces are supposed to withdraw further and a new international governing body has been formed. Yet, according to some reports, the US and Israel are already discussing a plan to formalize this division as part of post-genocide arrangements.Under this proposal, suggested by US president Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and US vice president JD Vance, the area under Israeli military control would become a secured and rebuilt zone, concentrating reconstruction, international investment, infrastructure and jobs there.
The remainder, under Hamas control, would stay isolated and be denied reconstruction until Hamas is disarmed.
Marking the Boundary
Israel has placed tall, yellow-painted concrete blocks to mark the yellow line, though their placement is uneven, liable to change and inconsistent.
Safaa Abu Libda, 23, originally from Abasan al-Kabira in Khan Younis but now displaced to al-Mawassi, told The Electronic Intifada that yellow blocks had been placed throughout Abasan al-Kabira.
For many residents in areas affected by this imposed yellow line, information about where is safe, and where is not, comes almost entirely from social media, including from the Israeli military.
“I follow the news of our area through the [Israeli] coordinator on social media channels, especially Facebook,” Abu Libda said.
On the day after the ceasefire officially went into effect, for example, this person, who identifies as “Captain Abu Younes” posted a warning that anyone who enters the ten specific areas he listed risks death or arrest.
“Those who love life,” he wrote, “do not go near these areas until further notice. Take care of your life.”
Many of the areas now behind the yellow line were accessible during the previous ceasefire, between January and March. In that period, families were able to return briefly to check on their homes and even live there for a while.
Among those still displaced in central Gaza, unable to cross the yellow line back north, is Nasser Oukasha, 55, from Jabaliya refugee camp, much of which is now behind the yellow line.
A father of seven and guardian of two grandchildren, Oukasha has been displaced at least seven times since the beginning of the genocidal war.
“During the [January] ceasefire, I went back to Sheikh Zayed. My house was destroyed, so I put up tents and stayed for about three months. Then they started dropping leaflets and shelling us again, so I fled to Bahloul [in Gaza City],” he said.
When the latest ceasefire took effect, he tried once again to return home.
“I reached Al-Yemen Al-Saeed Hospital,” he said. “A friend stopped me and told me there’s a yellow line now and it’s difficult to cross. So I turned back. I still can’t reach my neighborhood.”
Now living in a crowded camp in Deir al-Balah, Oukasha described life there as exhausting.
“The place is cramped, and there’s a water shortage. It feels like we’re trapped in a plastic bag. I just want to go back north. My heart aches for it.”
Oukasha also wants to be close to his daughter, who was killed along with her husband in late October 2023 in an airstrike that claimed over 400 lives. It is why he now looks after their two children.
“My house is destroyed, but I want to return to its rubble. That’s where my loved ones are, where my daughter was martyred.”
Oukasha fears, however, that he may be permanently prevented from returning.
“I have hope in God that I’ll go back. I’m scared this will become like 1948. They said, ‘We’ll go back, we’ll go back,’ and 72 years later, they never did.”
Uncertainty
Israeli forces remain entrenched behind the yellow line, which in the north includes the towns of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya, significant sections of the Jabaliya refugee camp, and eastern neighborhoods of Gaza City such as Shujaiya and Zeitoun.
In the south, more than half of Khan Younis is behind the yellow line, while in Rafah, the boundary stretches across nearly the entire governorate, leaving most residents unable to return home.
Samar al-Jamal, 34, who works with a medical humanitarian organization, lived in Rafah all her life. But in 2024, she was forced to evacuate.
“During the [January] ceasefire, we managed to return to our house. It was severely damaged, but it was habitable,” she said. Later, however, she saw subsequent satellite images that confirmed that her home had been completely destroyed.
Mooted plans to divide the Gaza Strip into two separate zones weigh heavily on people in Gaza.
“With the current news about Rafah and plans to rebuild it as a model city outside the control of Hamas, it’s worrying that we might not be able to return,” al-Jamal said. “We don’t know what operations are planned on the ground there. We don’t know if we’ll be allowed back or what life will look like. It’s really vague and worrying.”
Such uncertainty has only grown after the UN Security Council vote on 17 November 2025, which saw members support the US plan for Gaza.
While it speaks of a “pathway” to Palestinian self-determination, in reality it provides international legitimacy to a restructured, zoned Gaza, reinforcing the separations marked by the yellow line.
And for displaced Palestinians, the yellow line does not seem like a temporary measure. It is an invisible wall that separates them from the ruins of their homes, from their dead and from their land. They fear it hardening into a permanent scar.
“I just hope I can return to my city and my neighborhood, and for one last time, say goodbye to my home,” al-Jamal said.
Malak Hijazi is a Gaza-based writer.
