Israel invents the "orange line" to expand its occupation inside Gaza
The United Nations has revealed a new expansion of the Israeli occupation inside the Gaza Strip, through the establishment of what is known as the "Orange Line" within the scope of the "Yellow Line" to which Israeli forces withdrew in the first phase of the October 2025 plan to end the war.
The spokesman for the UN Secretary-General, Stephane Dujarric, said that the international organization has seen new maps that include an additional colored line that Israel has called the "Orange Line", and that UN humanitarian staff have been provided with these maps.
Dujarric said Israel had informed the UN that aid teams should coordinate their movements in advance when crossing the new line, calling the measure a "worrying indication" of the expansion of areas that are considered unsafe for both humanitarian and civilian workers.
He added that the United Nations is continuing its talks with the Israeli side to obtain further clarification on this new line, noting that civilians in Gaza are living in "very difficult conditions" in the vicinity of these lines, and risking their lives when trying to move.
Dujarric described the "yellow line" as "an indication, literally and figuratively, that things are not going in the right direction," referring to continued Israeli restrictions despite the ceasefire agreement.
Israeli Defense Minister Yisrael Katz announced on Feb. 17 that Israel "will not move from the yellow line by one millimeter" before disarming Hamas.
Since the IDF withdrew to this line as part of the ceasefire agreement and prisoner exchange in October 2025, the IDF announced the killing of dozens of Palestinians for allegedly crossing this line.
The agreement came after two years of a devastating war that began on October 8 , 2023, leaving more than 72,000 dead and 72,000 injured, in addition to massive destruction that affected 90% of civilian infrastructure, and the United Nations estimated the cost of its reconstruction at about $70 billion.
"The Yellow Line". A tool of political and security pressure
The term "yellow line" has emerged in the Gaza Strip since late 2025 and early 2026, becoming one of the most important indicators on the ground of the extent of Israeli control within the Strip and the restrictions imposed on the movement of Palestinians under Israeli ceasefire arrangements and military plans.
The line marks a dividing line between areas controlled by the Israeli military and those where Palestinians are allowed to exist. Reports on the ground confirm that any approach or attempt to cross this line puts civilians at risk of direct fire, making it a strict security barrier that isolates residents from large areas of their territory.
The "Yellow Line" stretches between 2 and 7 kilometers deep inside Gaza, placing between 53% and 58% of the Gaza Strip under direct Israeli military control, and in October 2025, the Israeli army began placing yellow-coated concrete blocks on the ground to clearly define this line, with the aim of preventing civilians and displaced people from approaching areas it considers "areas of operations."
The Yellow Line imposed a series of dangerous consequences on the ground, including the isolation of tens of thousands of displaced people and preventing them from returning to their homes located behind the line, and large agricultural losses as a result of the isolation of most of the fertile lands in eastern Gaza, which led to high food prices, a decline in local production, and the use of the line as a tool of political pressure, as Israeli officials stated that the withdrawal from it will not take place before achieving military goals, including the disarmament of the factions.
The "yellow line" is no longer just a field marker, but has become a political and security boundary that reshapes geography and population, and represents one of the most prominent manifestations of Israeli control within the Gaza Strip during the postwar period.
New expansion: The Appearance of the "Orange Line"
During the month of April 2026, leaked maps and reports revealed Israeli attempts to expand the line towards the west, by establishing a new line called the "Orange Line", and this expansion reduced the area available to the Palestinians to only about 36% of the area of the Gaza Strip, which deepens the humanitarian crisis and makes it more difficult to move and return to the eastern and northern regions.
The areas beyond the "Yellow Line" – i.e., under Israeli control – include large parts of northern Gaza (Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahiya, Jabalya), east of Gaza City (Shujaiya, al-Tufah, al-Zaytoun), southern Gaza Strip (large areas east of Khan Younis and Rafah).