AS Israel moved the blocks marking its armistice line with Hamas deeper into one Gaza neighbourhood last month, it destroyed dozens of buildings and displaced Palestinians in violation of a United States-backed ceasefire deal, according to satellite imagery reviewed by Reuters and resident testimony.
In areas across Gaza, Israel has placed the concrete blocks meant to demarcate its “Yellow Line” dozens or sometimes hundreds of metres inside Hamas-controlled territory, and its military has built up at least six fortifications to station troops, the satellite imagery shows.
The imagery depicts how Israel has unilaterally shifted its line of control in Gaza — and cordoned off more land where Palestinians could live — even as President Donald Trump presses ahead with a ceasefire plan that calls for further Israeli troop withdrawals.
Nowhere is Israel’s widening zone of control more stark than in Al-Tuffah, once a historic quarter of Gaza City but now a wasteland of destroyed buildings and mangled metal following two years of Israeli bombardment.
Thousands of Palestinians took shelter in Al-Tuffah after the October ceasefire, which was meant to see Israeli troops retreat to a yellow line marked on military maps that runs nearly the full length of Gaza.
But satellite images of Al-Tuffah taken Dec 2 and Dec 13 show that Israel initially placed blocks on the Hamas-controlled side of the Yellow Line and then moved them roughly 200m further in. After moving the yellow-painted blocks, the Israeli military began razing the area, destroying at least 40 buildings, a Reuters analysis of the imagery shows.
Few buildings remain standing between the newly positioned blocks and the Yellow Line.
Trump‘s 20-point plan to end the Gaza war, which underlies the ceasefire deal, called for an immediate halt to fighting.
Manal Abu Al-Kas is one of many Palestinians who say they were forced to flee eastern Al-Tuffah after Israel moved the blocks beyond where they were living.
Abu Al-Kas and her husband said two sons had been killed and buried in Al-Tuffah along with other relatives.
She said the family was living happily there, “until they put up these yellow stones and we were forced to leave” and she fled, along with her husband and another son, both of whom had legs amputated.
“If there weren’t shells falling on us in our homes, we wouldn’t have left our house,” she said.
Beyond Al-Tuffah, the satellite imagery shows that Israel has placed the blocks firmly in Hamas-controlled territory in areas across Gaza.
In Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, the Israeli military last month placed a block some
390m beyond the line, the images show, and another about 220m beyond it.
During that time, multiple buildings were destroyed and two tent clusters meant to house displaced people were dismantled, the images show.
The imagery also shows the military has built up at least six large fortifications, all on the Israeli side within 700m of the line of control. One in Beit Hanoun in north Gaza, is around 264m from the line.
Hazem Qassem, a Hamas spokesman, said the Yellow Line’s expansion had caused thousands to flee west.
“It also means that the entire people of the Gaza Strip will be crammed into a narrow strip in the west of the Gaza Strip, in an area that is less than 30 per cent of the strip’s area,” he said.
The US-backed deal called for a complete ceasefire but left Israel in control of well over half of Gaza.
On Thursday, Trump launched his “Board of Peace” after announcing a Palestinian technocratic committee last week in a bid to move the deal to its next phase.
Nearly all of Gaza’s two million people have been forced into a narrow coastal strip, where most live in tents or damaged buildings.
Officials have voiced concerns about a de facto partition of the territory, with reconstruction likely to be limited to Israeli-controlled areas.
Israel has repeatedly shot at people in areas around the Yellow Line since the ceasefire deal was struck in October.
In Al-Tuffah, videos taken early this month and verified by Reuters show Israel flying quadcopters, or small drones, over buildings some 500m inside the Yellow Line as it patrols the area.
* The writers are from Reuters
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