From yellow to orange: How Israel is expanding its occupation of Gaza despite ‘ceasefire’
The Israeli occupation now extends to roughly 65 percent of the besieged enclave, with surviving Palestinians forced to live in ever-shrinking spaces under rat-infested, squalid conditions.
Since the start of the supposed “ceasefire” in October last year, the Israelis have been quietly expanding and entrenching their occupation of the Gaza Strip. When Trump declared the start of the truce on October 10, the Israelis were occupying roughly 53 percent of Gaza. Since then, they have moved further westward to usurp another 11 percent of Palestinian territory, referring to the new boundary as the “orange line.” As a result, Palestinian genocide survivors are now living precariously within just 35 percent of their erstwhile territory, with the threat of bombings, sniper fire, and Israeli-backed gangs constantly hanging over them. Their struggles are further compounded by the tight Israeli siege that has ensured that only a fraction of the agreed-upon 600 daily aid and fuel trucks is allowed into the enclave.
Netanyahu recently boasted about the unhinged barbarism that his terrorist army has inflicted on the Gaza Strip for over two and a half years. “In the past two years we have shown the entire world what mighty forces are embedded in our people, in our state, in our army, in our heritage,” Netanyahu said on May 14 during an event commemorating Jerusalem Day, which marks the 1967 Jewish occupation of Jerusalem.
He further hailed his genocidal troops for occupying 60 percent of the Gaza Strip, insinuating that they will gobble up more Palestinian territory. “We brought back home all our hostages, up to the last one,” Netanyahu said. “There were those who said: get out, get out! We did not get out. Today we control 60 percent; tomorrow we shall see.”
Indeed, maps released by Israel in March showed it pushing the so-called yellow line further westward to occupy a further 11 percent of the Gaza Strip on top of the 53 percent occupied in October 2025. “The areas cordon off nearly two-thirds of Gaza's territory in total,” Reuters reported in April.
The Israeli occupation now extends to roughly 65 percent of the besieged enclave, with surviving Palestinians forced to live in ever-shrinking spaces under rat-infested, squalid conditions that are unfit for human habitation.
“They want to put as many Palestinians as possible in the smallest area in order to drive them out because of the absence of any viability or sustainability in what’s left of Gaza,” Jad Isaac, director general of the Applied Research Institute-Jerusalem, an independent Palestinian think tank in the occupied West Bank, told The New Arab.
While the Israelis continue expanding the occupation of Gaza, they are also killing besieged Palestinians with complete impunity. They have slaughtered over 800 Palestinians and injured thousands more since the start of the “ceasefire” in relentless attacks that now barely attract any media attention.
Hamas political bureau member Abdel Jabbar Saeed told The New Arab that Hamas would not enter the second phase of “ceasefire” negotiations unless Israel fulfils its obligations under the first phase, which include the entry of aid, withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, the entry of a Palestinian technocratic committee to administer the enclave, and a halt to attacks on civilians and officials.
“For us, it must end, and there must be a withdrawal and no stopping at the so-called ‘yellow line’. Therefore, we certainly reject expansion into the so-called ‘orange line,’” Saeed said. “We insist on this position and do not accept a policy of imposing a fait accompli on us under any circumstances.”
Youssef Mousa, an Islamic Jihad official based in Lebanon, said that the movement views the “orange line” as an Israeli attempt to “impose new realities.”
“These measures on the ground are part of Israeli efforts to create security belts that strengthen its control and military movements, while, politically, they reflect an attempt to pressure the resistance and impose new realities that serve its objectives in any future arrangements or negotiations,” Mousa told The New Arab.
The creeping Israeli lines across Palestinian territory are part of the Jewish state’s longstanding modus operandi, through which it attempts to eat up Arab land in neighbouring states, from Lebanon to Syria.
The genocidal Israeli military has established nearly three dozen outposts along the “yellow line” and is erecting a “multi-layered barrier,” according to reports in the Israeli press. Israeli officials have made it clear that they do not intend to leave Gaza.
Last December, war minister Israel Katz said that Israel would ‘never leave Gaza’ and spoke of plans to turn Israeli military outposts into Jews-only settlements. Israeli army chief Eyal Zamir has also said that the “yellow line” serves as the “new border line.”
The expanding yellow and orange lines are merely the latest manifestation of Israel’s longstanding strategy: to seize Arab land through overwhelming military force and manufacture a new “reality” on the ground, safe in the knowledge that international institutions are impotent to stop it. In Gaza, that strategy is unfolding amid genocide, starvation, and mass displacement, as surviving Palestinians are herded into ever-shrinking patches of devastated land while Israeli officials openly speak of a permanent occupation and Jews-only settlements.
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How chilling is it that these scumbag bastards want to give the world a running visual display of how they're crushing a people (amalek) from their land. Horrific stuff only psychopathic killers resort to.
I will reiterate this with great sadness, as a Palestinian-American.
The world simply does not care. This is not to say that individuals do not care, but their “leaders” do not. They simply want my people to disappear: There. Problem solved. No more worries about what to do with them.
Do you recall when it was referred to as the “Palestinian Problem “? As if Palestinians were the “problem”. Why did it take a genocide to get the world to notice that ISRAHELL is and always has been the problem?
And still do nothing?