Israel Keeps Expanding in Gaza Against The Rules Of The Cease-Fire

 On paper, the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza has been in effect for almost a year. In reality, Israel has entrenched and expanded its control in the Palestinian territory — and its leaders say they have little intention of withdrawing any time soon.

Israeli forces have fortified positions, built at least a dozen military outposts and moved farther into the territory beyond the withdrawal line that they agreed to, according to an analysis of satellite imagery by The New York Times.

Analysts, diplomats and people in Gaza say that Israeli actions since the cease-fire appear to be entrenching what was meant to be a temporary partition of the territory into an expanded Israeli-controlled zone and a smaller Hamas-ruled area. The vast majority of Gaza’s two million people now live in that smaller area.

Sources: United Nations (control and restricted areas); New York Times analysis of satellite imagery (earthen barriers and outposts). The New York Times

  

The U.S.-backed cease-fire that took effect in October 2025 put Israel in charge of about half of the Palestinian enclave. Yet in May, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the Israeli military controlled about 60 percent of the territory, and planned to take more.

Israel could still withdraw from Gaza if the cease-fire moves ahead. But progress on the next steps in the truce appears stymied. In July, U.S. officials said they had reached a deal with Hamas for it to lay down its weapons. Mr. Netanyahu rejected the plan and refused to withdraw without “genuine disarmament” by the Palestinian militant group.

The Israeli military said in a statement that it “establishes bases in Gaza in accordance with its defense concept, operational needs, and the cease-fire agreement.” It added that the bases were intended to protect Israeli forces as well as nearby communities in Israel.

In addition to building the outposts, Israeli troops have moved barriers, constructed earth mounds and declared areas off limits.

 

After the cease-fire, Israeli forces withdrew to an agreed-upon “yellow line,” giving them control of 53 percent of Gaza.

But they have been gradually taking more territory, sometimes moving the concrete boundary blocks farther into Gaza.

Israel has also created an “orange zone” with restricted access, requiring Palestinians and aid groups there to coordinate movement with the military.

And it has built large new earthen barriers, some of which are nearly a mile beyond the yellow line.

Six new military outposts were constructed in this area after the cease-fire, many on the rubble of homes and villages.

Source: New York Times analysis of satellite imagery; United Nations (control areas); Planet Labs (satellite images). The New York Times

On the Israeli side of the yellow line, or withdrawal line, much of Gaza is largely deserted. Israeli forces have demolished thousands of buildings there since the truce began, partly as they sought to blow up Hamas’s underground tunnel complex.

The vast majority of Palestinians are squeezed into a small area along the coast that is governed by Hamas. Only a few thousand live in the Israeli-controlled zone, most of whom are affiliated with armed groups backed and protected by Israeli forces.

Satellite images show new Israeli outposts along the perimeter of the yellow line, with fresh paving and military structures where the rubble of buildings stood before the cease-fire.

One of the questions hanging over Gaza is when and where reconstruction will begin. Officials from President Trump’s Board of Peace said last week that the United Arab Emirates was planning to build a residential complex for displaced Palestinians in the Israeli-controlled area.

But Ali Shaath, who leads the group of Palestinian technocrats tapped by Mr. Trump to administer Gaza, told diplomats on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York that their approach was “colorblind.” It would not “separate the green zone from the red zone, the yellow line from the orange line,” he said.

Israeli officials have said they will not allow wide-scale reconstruction in Gaza unless Hamas lays down its weapons.

 

New outposts built by Israel after the cease-fire

 

Other Israeli outposts that existed before the cease-fire have been substantially upgraded, with new perimeter walls, the satellite images show.

Deep in the Israeli-controlled zone, U.S. officials hope to build a base on the outskirts of the southern city of Rafah for an international peacekeeping mission, according to three officials, who spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to speak to the news media.

Construction work for the base has been delayed for months, as the project is still awaiting further Israeli approvals, two of the officials said.

As the withdrawal line has encroached farther, Gazans have been forced to cram deeper into the enclave, where housing is already scarce after two years of devastating war. About 80 percent of Gaza’s housing is destroyed or damaged, according to the United Nations.

Tania Hary, the executive director of Gisha, an Israeli human rights group, said that “unbearable crowding” and the breakdown of public services after the war were leading to outbreaks of disease, as well as infestations of rats and other pests.

“Most of Gaza’s agricultural land also lies on the other side of the yellow line and is now inaccessible to farmers,” she said.

People approaching the lines, even by accident, have been shot by Israeli forces. The Israeli military says Hamas has dispatched militants to probe the lines, which has led soldiers to open fire. But after some civilians were killed in the early days of the truce, Israeli forces set up yellow blocks to indicate where the danger zone began.

Since then, those blocks have been moved as Israeli forces have pushed deeper into Gaza.

One Palestinian, Mohammad Abu Riyash, said he had been caught unawares by a sudden Israeli advance. In late August, he was staying with relatives who had decided to remain in their home near Beit Lahia, in northern Gaza, when they heard an eruption of gunfire.

The intermittent shooting continued for more than two hours, he said. When it ended, an Israeli yellow block had been moved a few hundred meters to sit not far from their house, he said. The Times provided the precise coordinates and timing to the Israeli military, which declined to comment.

Mohammad Abu Riyash

“Only a handful of people are left in the area,” Mr. Abu Riyash, 33, said.

The situation has been complicated further by the orange zone beyond the yellow line. Humanitarian organizations and residents must coordinate their movements with Israel before crossing into it, but some Palestinians still live there despite the risks.

Israeli forces have been blowing up buildings there, too, despite the truce. Satellite imagery showed more than 100 structures were flattened south of the central city of Deir al-Balah between late August and early September. The Israeli military said the demolition was part of operations to “thwart threats and locate and dismantle military infrastructure.”

 

Recent demolitions

GAZA

STRIP

Detail

Buildings

demolished in

recent weeks

Orange zone

Yellow line

Israeli control

under cease-fire

1,500 feet

Note: Analysis based on satellite images between Aug. 5 and Sept. 17. Source: Planet Labs (satellite image). The New York Times

At least 196 Palestinians, including 18 women and 43 children, have been killed near the yellow line since the cease-fire, according to the U.N. human rights office. The Israeli military regularly releases statements saying that its forces have fired on militants operating near the line, but at least some of those killed have been civilians.

In April, two truck drivers working for UNICEF, the U.N. children’s agency, were killed at a water-collection point near Mansoura, an area inside the orange zone. The Israeli military said that the drivers had approached without coordinating with them and that it “greatly regrets unintentional harm caused to civilians.”

The entrenchment and expansion of the Israeli-controlled territory reflects Israel’s new security doctrine. It wants to create buffer zones in neighboring territories to prevent surprise attacks, although right-wing Israeli politicians also hope to one day build Israeli settlements in Gaza, as in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli officials, including Mr. Netanyahu, have said that the buffer zones are meant to help thwart another assault like the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, which ignited the war in Gaza. About 1,200 people were killed in Israel and about 250 were taken as hostages back to Gaza, according to the Israeli authorities. The subsequent war has killed about 74,000 people in Gaza, according to local health officials, who do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

Israel now holds sway over occupied zones in southern Lebanon, from which it forced hundreds of thousands of residents to flee, and in Syria. The Trump administration has overseen negotiations under which Israel would withdraw from both areas.

This month, Mr. Netanyahu toured the Israeli-held zone in Gaza and repeated his promise that Israel would not withdraw from its buffer zone there until Hamas laid down its weapons.

“We control some 60 percent of the territory,” Mr. Netanyahu said, “and our hand is still outstretched.”