09/05/2026 – Union for Justice Foundation
The war on the Gaza Strip is no longer merely another round of military confrontation; it has evolved into a strategic project aimed at reshaping Palestinian geography and imposing a new reality on the ground. In this context, what has become known as the “Yellow Line” has emerged as a buffer security strip extending from the north of the Strip to its south, with a depth ranging from 2 to 7 kilometers. This line, which has effectively carved out approximately 58% of the Gaza Strip’s total area, has been under full Israeli control since October 2025 and has witnessed extensive clearing operations targeting both people and infrastructure, uprooting everything in their path. The destruction did not stop there; these newly imposed borders have been reinforced through the excavation of deep trenches and the construction of massive earth berms designed to completely isolate the Strip from its surroundings and transform the depopulated areas into closed military zones.
Current developments indicate that the occupation has moved into a broader phase known as the “Orange Line,” a plan aimed at carving out additional areas estimated at approximately 34 square kilometers (an additional 11% of Gaza’s total area). When these areas are combined with the “Yellow Line” zone, the proportion of land under direct occupation rises to nearly 64% of the total area of the Gaza Strip.
This systematic expansion constitutes a blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement signed in October 2025. Bloodshed has not ceased since the beginning of that so-called truce, with statistics recording more than one hundred fatalities resulting from direct Israeli fire. This confirms that the Israeli strategy is based on “extermination and gradual erasure” under the cover of a deceptive calm.
This catastrophic geographic transformation has confined more than 2.5 million Palestinians to an extremely narrow area not exceeding 150 square kilometres (approximately 36% of the Strip’s total area), amid the complete destruction of infrastructure and the total collapse of essential services. Under such unbearable overcrowding, there is no longer even space to pitch a tent, leaving residents trapped in a bitter reality of repeated displacement and homelessness.
The transition from the Yellow Line to the Orange Line embodies the occupation’s vision of redrawing Gaza by force and imposing a security reality that will be difficult to reverse. Union for Justice strongly condemns this approach and warns that the continuation of the blockade, starvation policies, and de facto occupation is aimed at destroying the foundations of Palestinian life and displacing those who remain after the destruction of every remaining aspect of life and infrastructure.
On the political and international levels, the European Union has taken a firm stance in rejecting these plans. In its official statements, the EU categorically rejected any change to the area of the Gaza Strip or the annexation of parts of it for the creation of buffer zones. The European Union emphasized that Gaza is a single geographical unit and an integral part of the future Palestinian state. It affirmed that the establishment of the Yellow Line or the Orange Line—along with the accompanying destruction of residential blocks and uprooting of agricultural land—constitutes measures lacking international legitimacy, undermines any prospects for strategic peace, represents a violation of Israel’s obligations as an occupying power, and breaches the international understandings reached in October 2025.
Accordingly, the Union for Justice considers that this reality imposed by force represents not merely a violation on the ground, but an “ongoing crime” that requires immediate international criminal action. The policy of “erasing Gaza” and transforming it into security zones is an attempt to legitimize the de facto occupation of 64% of the Strip’s territory, in direct contradiction with all international conventions and treaties. It places the international community before a historic responsibility to halt the legal and humanitarian collapse endured by more than 2.5 million people trapped within only 36% of their land.
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