GAZA, (PIC)
The Israeli occupation army continues, since reaching the ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip on October 10, 2025, to impose new field conditions through daily bombing operations and assassinations, in parallel with expanding military zones westward outside what is known as the Yellow Line east of the Strip, reaching the creation of what has come to be called by Israel the Orange Line.
According to the understandings reached in the negotiations hosted by the Egyptian city of Sharm El-Sheikh, the Yellow Line represented a field separation zone that kept about 47% of the area of the Strip within the western areas where the Palestinian population is located, in exchange for 53% of the area of Gaza remaining under Israeli control.
However, despite the validity of the agreement, the occupation army continued to expand westward, which led to imposing a new reality by expanding the restricted areas and creating the so-called Orange Line, in a step that raised Palestinian human rights warnings about its humanitarian and political repercussions.
The Gaza Center for Human Rights had warned, last Saturday, of a dangerous escalation in the Israeli policies aimed at reducing the spaces available to civilians, and expanding the restricted areas in conjunction with the continued bombing and the fall of victims on a daily basis.
According to the center data, the Orange Line cuts off about 11% additional area of the Gaza Strip, thus raising the percentage of restricted or prohibited areas for Palestinians to about 65% of the total area of the Strip.
This means pushing about 2.1 million displaced people to crowd into an area not exceeding 35% of the area of Gaza, in light of the collapse of basic services and the worsening of health and environmental conditions, which increases the risks of spreading diseases and epidemics and undermines the requirements of human life.
Political deadlock
These developments coincide with intensive rounds of negotiations witnessed by the Egyptian capital, Cairo, since April 15, with the participation of Hamas and Palestinian factions on one hand, and mediators alongside the High Envoy for the Peace Council, Nickolay Mladenov, on the other, to discuss moving to the second stage of the agreement.
However, this round did not achieve any breakthrough, in light of the Palestinian factions’ adherence to the necessity of completing the implementation of the first stage before entering into the second stage files, most notably the weapons file.
In contrast, the Israeli government headed by Benjamin Netanyahu insists on the condition of disarming Hamas and the Palestinian factions, without discussing the completion of the withdrawal or the entry of aid and starting reconstruction.
The member of the Hamas political bureau abroad, Abdul Jabbar Said, said that the Movement informed the mediators repeatedly of its rejection of the Israeli expansion of its Yellow Line and the attempt to impose a de facto situation in Gaza.
Said explained that the Movement demands, before entering into any negotiations regarding the second stage, that Israel implement its full obligations in the first stage, including withdrawal, the entry of aid, allowing the entry of the administrative committee and health aid, and stopping the bombing and assassinations against civilians.
He added, “We reject expansion and aggression, and it must be ended, rather there must be a withdrawal and not stopping at the so-called Yellow Line, and naturally we reject the expansion to the Orange Line.”
He stressed that the position of the Movement is based on the withdrawal of the occupation forces towards the borders of the Strip, and the return of the situation to what it was before 7 October 2023.
For his part, the official of Palestinian relations in the Islamic Jihad Movement in Lebanon, Yusuf Musa, considered that the creation of the Orange Line falls within a policy of imposing new field conditions by force.
Musa said that these measures reflect an Israeli pursuit to create security belts that enhance military control, and at the same time constitute a pressure card on the resistance within any upcoming arrangements or negotiations.
He added that the occupation uses buffer zones and military measures as preliminary tools to impose new field condition, confirming that the continuation of the bombing and the expansion of the restricted areas undermines any real chances of reaching a stable calm.
Complex reality and no options
In the same context, the political analyst Iyad al-Qarra believes that Israel is imposing new conditions on the ground away from the path of the ongoing talks in Cairo.
Al-Qarra pointed to the existence of attempts by militias collaborating with Israel to work inside the areas controlled by the occupation army, but they faced rejection from citizens and members of the resistance, which prompted the occupation to provide protection and support for these groups.
He added that the occupation army seeks to impose full and permanent control through continuous demolitions, especially in the eastern areas of Al-Shuja’iya neighborhood and east of Khan Yunis, pointing out that the Yellow Line previously included residential buildings and houses, but the occupation army is currently working on erasing them completely in parallel with expanding these areas and strengthening security measures in them.
Regarding the Palestinian options, al-Qarra described the situation as extremely difficult, noting that the current option is steadfastness and trying to face the daily attacks.
He confirmed that the Palestinian resistance faces complex conditions, in light of the absence of the option of returning to war at present, but he pointed out that any large Israeli military expansion may push it to respond.
