3 November 2025 | 14:23 CAT
3-minute read

Israel’s “Yellow Line” in Gaza: A New Buffer Zone Raises Questions of Control, Aid and Narrative

Summary:

• The “yellow line” represents a covert form of Israeli occupation, expanding control over depopulated areas of Gaza under the guise of a buffer zone.
• Palestinian resistance continues despite isolation and scarcity, with fighters maintaining positions even without supplies or communication.
• Israel is preparing a global media campaign to distort Gaza’s reality, showcasing curated destruction to shift blame onto Palestinians and justify its ongoing control.

Despite talk of a “ceasefire,” Gaza remains carved up, suffocated and manipulated under Israel’s expanding “yellow line” — a zone that symbolises not peace, but a slow-motion annexation. Scholar Ebrahim Moosa, speaking to Radio Islam International, described how Israel is using this buffer area to entrench control, restrict aid, and rewrite the story of Gaza’s devastation.

Moosa explained that within this yellow line — a zone Israel claims for “security” — entire areas are now depopulated and under Israeli control, with Palestinian resistance fighters still holding positions despite losing communication with central command. Their endurance, he said, reflects the resilience of a people refusing to surrender under impossible conditions.

“Nobody actually knows how many of them are actually in these areas … yet they still remain in their positions with the same kind of steadfastness and composure.”

Even as Israel returned over 200 Palestinian bodies, only about 70 could be identified due to the lack of DNA testing facilities in Gaza — facilities Israel has deliberately blocked from entry. Meanwhile, Israeli authorities have withheld vital identification data from families still searching for their loved ones.

“The Israelis were in full control of this particular area and were unable to have any idea despite their previous claims … which raises questions on the extent to which the Israelis actually know what is happening in Gaza.”

Adding insult to tragedy, Moosa highlighted Israel’s latest propaganda effort — a media campaign designed to manipulate international perception. Israeli and foreign journalists may soon be allowed into Gaza, but only under military escort and within controlled zones that exclude the devastated population. The goal: to frame Gaza’s destruction as Hamas’s fault and shift global sympathy away from Palestinians.

“They are focusing on creating demonstration sites to show allegedly how Hamas operated within civilian areas … to frame the destruction as Hamas’s responsibility.”

This strategy, he warned, is a continuation of Hasbara — Israel’s state-led disinformation effort — meant to hide the daily realities of starvation, rubble, and displacement. Despite global outrage and widespread documentation of war crimes, Israel appears to be redrawing Gaza’s map in silence: extending its military footprint, isolating civilians, and suppressing the truth.

As aid trucks remain a fraction of the promised amount and families live among ruins, the so-called yellow line becomes more than a physical barrier — it is a symbol of occupation disguised as “security.” For Gaza’s people, survival itself is now an act of resistance.

Listen to the Palestine Report on Sabaahul Muslim with Moulana Sulaimaan Ravat.