میدل ایست آیIsrael uses sand walls to further encroach in Palestinian territory on Gaza as siege tightens
Israel uses sand walls to further encroach in Palestinian territory on Gaza as siege tightens
Israel is expanding its area of control by displacing families and redrawing Gaza’s post-ceasefire boundary
Palestinians run for cover as smoke and fire rise during an Israeli strike on the the Al-Muttaqin Mosque in Gaza City on 28 July (AFP/Omar Al Qattaa)
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Israel is pushing the so-called yellow line deeper into Gaza, displacing Palestinian families and tightening its siege by squeezing more than two million people into an increasingly small section of the devastated enclave.
Residents of al-Tuffah in northern Gaza awoke on Monday to find concrete markers moved westwards into the middle of Salah al-Din Road, the territory’s main north-south route, the BBC reported.
An Israeli flag had also been raised over a three-metre-high sand and earth barrier nearby.
Satellite imagery has shown the extent of the walled enclosure across vast tracts of the besieged Palestinian territory.
For several months now, Gaza's residents have reported their expulsion by Israel and the prevention of their return by high earth walls.
Families, whose home Israel destroyed during its genocide on Gaza, fled once again on Sunday after the Israeli military warned it would attack a nearby building. The subsequent strike tore apart the tent that had become their only shelter.
Under the US-brokered agreement reached with Hamas last October, Israel was supposed to withdraw to the yellow line while temporarily retaining control over 53 percent of Gaza.
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, has since said that the military controls more than 60 percent of the enclave. In May, he said his “directive” was to increase that figure to 70 percent.
The death toll from Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza has risen to 73,335, with at least 174,052 Palestinians wounded since 7 October, 2023, medical sources said.
Since the ceasefire took effect on 11 October, Israeli attacks have killed 1,209 Palestinians and wounded 3,943, while rescue crews have recovered 803 bodies.
Since the agreement, Israel has built more than 42km of barriers covering about 85 percent of the yellow line.
The fortifications, military bases and expanding embankments point towards a prolonged occupation while effectively redrawing the boundary further inside Gaza.
Near al-Mawasi, one barrier extends more than 1.5km beyond the line originally mapped under the agreement. Another in Khan Younis crosses it by more than 500 metres.
The advancing boundary has repeatedly uprooted Palestinians.
On 18 July, dozens of families fled Zeitoun after Israel issued an evacuation order. Witnesses reported gunfire from military vehicles and drones, as well as artillery attacks.
The United Nations humanitarian agency said about 30 families lost their tents.
Satellite images also show Israel razing farmland east of Deir el-Balah after giving families two days to leave.
Israeli forces destroyed structures and apparently uprooted an olive grove more than 500 metres beyond the mapped line before installing new concrete markers.
In Rafah and Khan Younis, Israel demolished homes and greenhouses to clear routes for new barriers. Satellite imagery indicates that scores of additional buildings were destroyed across Gaza in July alone, including in Jabalia, Beit Lahiya, Zeitoun and Deir el-Balah.
Israel has also established 14 new military positions since October and expanded several older sites.
The creeping annexation is turning the Yellow Line into an instrument of siege, allowing Israel to seize more land while forcing Palestinians into overcrowded areas where shelter, food, water and medical care remain scarce
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