Newsletters
An Israeli Haaretz report warns that the Israeli army’s so-called “yellow line,” a temporary boundary cutting across the Gaza Strip, is raising concerns among analysts and European officials that it could solidify into a permanent division similar to the Green Line established after the 1949 Armistice Agreements.
The report, prepared by Allison Kaplan Sommer, says the Israeli military now controls 53% of Gaza within a boundary that is officially temporary, yet reconstruction is taking place only on the Israeli-controlled side.
Sommer draws a comparison to the Green Line in the West Bank, noting that it was created as a temporary demarcation between Israel’s internationally recognized borders and the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, but became a defining political and geographic marker.
The “yellow line,” created after the implementation of former U.S. President Donald Trump’s 20-point cease-fire plan for Gaza, separates Hamas-controlled areas from the Israeli army’s buffer zone and is marked with yellow concrete blocks.
According to the plan, Israel was expected to gradually withdraw as a transitional technocratic authority took over, followed by the deployment of a multinational security force and the start of large-scale reconstruction.
However, European assessments suggest the Israeli withdrawal has stalled due to a lack of progress on disarming Hamas and other stages of the plan, while reconstruction has begun only on the Israeli-controlled side.
Critics fear this could entrench a long-term arrangement in which more than half of Gaza remains under permanent Israeli military control while Hamas governs the rest, echoing dynamics seen in parts of the West Bank.
Recent developments—such as ongoing rebuilding in Israeli-held areas and the shooting of suspects attempting to cross the line—indicate the scenario may already be taking shape.
The report concludes that the ambitions of Israel’s most hardline officials could, in effect, be realized if the yellow line evolves into a new version of the Green Line.
4 min read
