Extract from ABC News
The IDF uses these blocks to mark the "Yellow Line" between Israeli- and Hamas-controlled territory. (ABC News)
In short:
The so-called Yellow Line in Gaza that marks the boundary of Israeli-controlled territory has been moved further into the enclave.
Israel now controls 60 per cent of Gaza, its military has confirmed, up from the 53 per cent agreed to in last year's ceasefire negotiations.
Concrete blocks used to mark the boundary are often moved without notice, according to residents; however, the IDF says it takes "significant efforts" to warn civilians of its movements.
In the war-ravaged Gaza strip, ominous concrete blocks symbolise a new battle for survival.
Painted bright yellow, the markers indicate the edge of Israeli-controlled territory and the boundary of where it is relatively safe for Palestinians to venture.
That boundary, known as the Yellow Line, was first drawn after Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas declared a ceasefire in late 2025.
But since then the slabs have been moved further into Gaza, carving a deeper path through the territory.
"The Yellow Line changes overnight. You come the next day, you see the line moved forward a metre, then it goes back," said Mustafa Taym, 46, from the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza.
"It's like a game of cat and mouse; they are playing chess with you, turn by turn, a move to the right and a move to the left.
"The Yellow Line devours everything, leaving nothing but scorched earth."
Moati Zayd, 46, said he had returned to his home in the city of Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza, after the October 2025 ceasefire was announced.
"We returned to our homes only to find them reduced to ruins, a pile of rubble, full of insects and snakes; they were uninhabitable, and we did not have the equipment to remove the rubble," he said.
Mustafa Taym and Moati Zayd both said they had seen the blocks that mark the Yellow Line moved. (ABC News)
The city of Beit Lahiya, whose boundary stretches from Jabalia in the south to the Israeli border in the north, was effectively cleaved in two by the Yellow Line.
After trying to return home, Mr Zayd and his family have since had to flee.
"We were forced to pitch tents next to our homes close to the Yellow Line. We tried to live in security and peace; we were unarmed," he said.
"But in the middle of the night the military, [with] Caterpillar D9 bulldozers, Merkava tanks and quadcopters entered our tents and tore them down."
'Squeeze them': Israel plans further push into Gaza
When last year's ceasefire was announced, new maps of Gaza were released showing which side of the war controlled which parts of the territory.
At that time, Israel occupied just over half of Gaza's land, and the phrase "the Yellow Line" was coined to explain the first point the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) would withdraw to as part of the truce deal.
As the ceasefire progressed, and negotiations between Israel and Hamas on a lasting peace were held, the intention was for Israeli forces to continue their gradual withdrawal from parts of Gaza.
But stalled progress on the next phases of the truce, such as the disarming of Hamas, has meant the IDF has not pulled back to areas closer to the Israel border.
Since then, soldiers have taken more territory.
Locals in Gaza have reported those yellow concrete blocks as being moved surreptitiously over the last eight months.
Locals have reported the concrete blocks marking the "Yellow Line" being moved further into Gaza. (ABC News)
In some areas, yellow blocks have been placed hundreds of metres further into Gaza than the official Yellow Line, according to an analysis of satellite imagery by Forensic Architecture, a research group based at the University of London.
In some locations, buildings have been destroyed beyond the Yellow Line, and in others, the Israeli military has constructed berms along — or even outside of — the boundary, Forensic Architecture's analysis found.
In addition to that, earlier this year, the IDF issued aid agencies with a map showing a so-called "Orange Line" that sat even further into Gaza.
The Orange Line is understood to be something of a buffer zone before the Yellow Line boundary, and any movement in this space has to be coordinated with Israeli authorities.
The combined impact of those measures is that more of Gaza is now under effective Israeli control, squeezing the population of more than 2.1 million people into an ever-shrinking parcel of land and displacing more Palestinians from their homes.
In late May, Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said the IDF controlled 60 per cent of the strip, and he had directed it to expand that to 70 per cent.
"Let's start with that, squeeze them from all sides, we will deal with what's left over," he said.
Among the more than 1,000 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza since the ceasefire, hundreds were shot when approaching the Yellow Line, according to the United Nations.
In late November, two boys aged eight and 11 were among those shot.
Their families told media outlets they were collecting wood, while the IDF said its troops had identified "suspects" crossing the line and approaching soldiers, posing "an immediate threat".
Cities and homes razed behind Yellow Line
Many of the areas inside the Israeli-controlled territory behind the Yellow Line have been razed.
Cities such as Beit Hanoun in the north and Rafah in the south were mostly bulldozed by Israeli forces before the October 2025 ceasefire, and the destruction in Israeli-controlled territory has continued since then.
Ibrahim Mahmoud, 60, is among those Palestinians unable to return home because of where the Yellow Line now falls.
Ibrahim Mahmoud lost hope in trying to return to his home in Beit Hanoun, after seeing it moved behind the Yellow Line. (ABC News)
Originally from Beit Hanoun, he said the markers had moved multiple times.
"In the beginning, [the Yellow Line] was half a kilometre from our homes [in Beit Hanoun]," he told the ABC.
"After two, three months we returned, and we saw [our home] was moved to the inside [of the line].
"This is what surprised us, this is what we felt, we lost hope in returning home."
He now lives in the Deir Al Balah tent camp, but fears the line will continue moving.
"Where shall I go to? To the sea behind me? Where shall I go to?"
Gazan residents have reported these yellow blocks being moved without warning. (ABC News: Matthew Doran)
In response to questions from the ABC, the IDF confirmed it had "operation control of approximately 60 per cent of the Gaza Strip".
"The deployment of troops is continuously assessed and adjusted in accordance with operational requirements and may therefore change over time," a spokesperson said in a statement.
It rejected suggestions no warning was given to Palestinians of the line moving.
"The IDF makes significant efforts, whenever operationally feasible, to provide advance warnings to the civilian population through a variety of means, including evacuation notices, in order to enable civilians to move away from areas where active combat is taking place," the spokesperson said.
"The timing, scope, and method of issuing such warnings are determined in accordance with operational circumstances and the need to protect both the civilian population and IDF troops."
It said any further movement would be directed by the Netanyahu government.
Communities forced to leave 'no go zones'
The stalemate in negotiations between Israel and Hamas is fuelling concern across the region, and from those appointed to try to reach a solution.
Nickolay Mladenov, the high representative for Gaza appointed by Donald Trump's Board of Peace, outlined the "risks of inaction" in remarks to the UN Security Council in May.
"The risk is that the deteriorating status quo becomes permanent: a divided Gaza; Hamas holding military and administrative control over two million people across less than half the territory," he said.
"Those people are likely to remain trapped in the rubble, dependent on aid, with no meaningful reconstruction, because reconstruction financing will not follow where weapons have not been laid down.
"No investment, no movement, no horizon. And the result? Another generation of children growing up in tents, in fear, with despair as the most rational thing for them to feel. No security for Israel and no viable pathway to Palestinian self-determination."
Mr Mladenov said that was the "version of the future that Israelis, Palestinians and the region should all fear and all mobilise to avoid".
Many Gazans, including Um Mohamad Muharam and her three disabled children, live in tent cities after being pushed out of their homes. (ABC News)
Israeli human rights organisation Gisha said the situation was dire, particularly with much of the land under Israeli control used as Gaza's most productive agricultural land prior to the war.
"Entire communities that lived in areas that have become 'no-go zones' have been completely destroyed," the organisation said in May.
"Furthermore, the harm to access to vital services and humanitarian aid may further worsen living conditions and encourage departure from additional areas of the Strip behind the Orange Line.
"Israel must cease imposing restrictions on the movement of civilians and operations of aid organisations in Gaza, and refrain from targeting and destroying civilian infrastructure on either side of these arbitrary demarcation lines."
