Maps show how Israel’s ‘Yellow Line’ keeps squeezing Palestinians in Gaza

A year into a ‘ceasefire’, Israel restricts access to 65 percent of Gaza and crams 2.1 million people into the rest.

Israel has expanded its military occupation in the Gaza Strip in violation of a United States-brokered ‘ceasefire’ , forcing Palestinians into an ever-smaller share of the besieged territory, devastated by Israel’s ongoing genocidal war.

Nearly two-thirds of Gaza is now under Israeli military control or subject to access restrictions.

The original ‘Yellow Line’, established under US President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan to end the war, marked the area to which Israeli forces initially withdrew. They were expected to make further withdrawals gradually, but instead, they have seized more territory.

On Sunday, Israeli forces moved yellow concrete blocks dozens of metres west in Shujayea, a neighbourhood in southeastern Gaza City, forcing Palestinian families to flee and bringing more of the neighbourhood under Israeli military control.

A yellow block demarcating the ‘Yellow Line’, which has separated the Gaza Strip’s Israeli-held and Palestinian zones since a ‘ceasefire’ began a year ago, is seen in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on January 22, 2026 [Abdel Kareem Hana/AP Photo]

“It’s not simply about where the ‘Yellow Line’ is today but where it can move next,” Al Jazeera’s Ibrahim al-Khalili said, reporting from Gaza City. “For families who have been repeatedly displaced in the past three years, the situation remains dire, and they have to make the impossible decision of where they can go.”

More than 90 percent of Gaza’s 2.1 million population has been forcibly displaced by Israel’s war, launched on October 7, 2023, after Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel.

Using maps, Al Jazeera shows how much of Gaza Israel has grabbed since the ‘ceasefire’.

Before the war, Palestinians were spread across the Gaza Strip, a 365sq km (141sq-mile) territory roughly 41km (25 miles) long and from 6km to 12km (4 to 7 miles) wide.

That made it one of the most densely populated places on Earth with about 6,000 people per square kilometre, similar to Nairobi or London. Each person had, on average, about 160sq metres (1,722sq ft) of land.

Even then, not all of Gaza’s land was accessible. Israel enforced a buffer zone along the fence with Israel, and Palestinians who approached it risked being shot. In 2010, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimated that the restricted area covered 17 percent of Gaza’s land and 35 percent of its farmland.

Gaza has been under an Israeli land, air and sea blockade since 2007.

Gaza at the ‘ceasefire’

Under the first phase of the “ceasefire”, Israeli forces were to withdraw to the “Yellow Line” within 24 hours, after which a 72-hour period began for the handover of Israeli captives held in Gaza. Trump first published a map of the line on his Truth Social platform.

The line left Israel in control of 53 percent of the Strip, mostly farmland and border areas in the east, and confined Palestinians to the remaining 47 percent, about 172sq km (66sq miles).

By October 2025, two years of war had killed more than 67,000 Palestinians, and tens of thousands more had left the territory, reducing Gaza’s population to about 2.1 million.

Pushed into less than half of Gaza’s territory under the “ceasefire”, its density doubled to about 12,000 people per square kilometre, comparable to New York City. Each person was left with about 82sq metres (883sq ft).

Since the “ceasefire”, Israeli forces have repeatedly moved the yellow concrete blocks marking the “Yellow Line” farther west, sometimes overnight, expanding the areas under their control. Satellite imagery has also documented continued demolitions in areas held by Israeli forces.

The research group Forensic Architecture estimated that Israel controlled 58 percent of Gaza by December. In March, the Israeli military sent aid agencies maps of a new “orange line”, a restricted zone beyond the “Yellow Line” where humanitarian movements must be coordinated with the army.

According to OCHA, restrictions now cover 65 percent of Gaza. Israel itself said it controls about 70 percent of the territory, a UN official told the Security Council in June.

That leaves 2.1 million people in about 35 percent of the Strip, roughly 128sq km (49sq miles). The population density has nearly tripled since before the war to about 16,000 people per square kilometre, close to central Tokyo.

Each person now has about 61sq metres (657sq ft) of land for everything: shelter, roads, schools, hospitals and farmland.

Unlike Tokyo, Gaza has little space left to house its people. The UN Satellite Centre, UNOSAT, found 82 percent of structures in the Strip are damaged or destroyed. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization says only 3 percent of Gaza’s cropland is both undamaged and accessible.

OCHA says the remaining 35 percent of Gaza is “already overcrowded” and access restrictions are a key obstacle as aid groups try to relocate families before the rainy season. More than 950,000 people live in displacement sites at risk of flooding, according to the UN, most of them in tents and makeshift shelters, as seen in the satellite image below.

Approaching the ‘Yellow Line” can be deadly. Israel treats areas beyond it as a free-fire zone, and Palestinians who come near it have been shot. Nearly 1,500 people have been killed across Gaza since the ceasefire was announced.

“停火”一年后，以色列限制进入加沙地带 65% 的地区，并将 210 万人挤入其余地区。

以色列违反美国斡旋达成的“停火协议”，扩大了在加沙地带的军事占领，迫使巴勒斯坦人只能在被围困的领土上占据越来越小的份额，而这片领土已被以色列持续不断的种族灭绝战争摧毁。

目前，加沙近三分之二的地区处于以色列军事控制之下或受到准入限制。

最初的“黄线”是根据美国总统唐纳德·特朗普旨在结束战争的二十点计划划定的，它标志着以色列军队最初撤退的区域。人们预期他们会逐步进一步撤退，但实际上，他们却占领了更多领土。

周日，以色列军队在加沙城东南部的舒贾耶区向西移动了数十米的黄色混凝土块，迫使巴勒斯坦家庭逃离家园，并将该地区的更多部分置于以色列军事控制之下。

2026年1月22日，在加沙地带南部汗尤尼斯，可以看到一条黄色方块标示着“黄线”，这条黄线自一年前“停火”开始以来，一直将加沙地带的以色列控制区和巴勒斯坦控制区分隔开来。[Abdel Kareem Hana/AP Photo]

半岛电视台记者易卜拉欣·哈利利在加沙城报道称：“这不仅仅关乎‘黄线’今天在哪里，而是它下一步会向哪里移动。对于过去三年里反复流离失所的家庭来说，情况依然十分严峻，他们不得不做出艰难的抉择，决定自己能去哪里。”

2023年10月7日，在哈马斯领导的袭击以色列南部之后，以色列发动了战争，加沙210万人口中超过90%的人被迫流离失所。

半岛电视台利用地图展示了自“停火”以来以色列占领了加沙地带的多少地区。

战前，巴勒斯坦人分散居住在加沙地带，这片面积为 365 平方公里（141 平方英里）、长约 41 公里（25 英里）、宽约 6 公里至 12 公里（4 至 7 英里）的领土。

这使得它成为地球上人口密度最高的地方之一，每平方公里约有6000人，与内罗毕或伦敦类似。平均而言，每个人拥有约160平方米（1722平方英尺）的土地。

即便如此，加沙地带也并非全部开放。以色列在与加沙接壤的隔离墙沿线设立了缓冲区，巴勒斯坦人靠近缓冲区则面临被枪击的风险。2010年，联合国人道主义事务协调厅（OCHA）估计，这片限制区域覆盖了加沙17%的土地和35%的农田。

自 2007 年以来，加沙一直处于以色列的陆地、空中和海上封锁之下。

加沙在“停火”时期

根据“停火”协议的第一阶段，以色列军队应在24小时内撤退至“黄线”以内，之后开始为期72小时的移交加沙地带被扣押的以色列人质的程序。特朗普首先在他的“真相社交”（Truth Social）平台上发布了这条线的地图。

这条线使以色列控制了加沙地带 53% 的土地，主要是东部的农田和边境地区，而巴勒斯坦人则被限制在剩余的 47% 的土地上，约 172 平方公里（66 平方英里）。

到 2025 年 10 月，两年的战争已造成超过 67,000 名巴勒斯坦人死亡，另有数万人离开该地区，使加沙人口减少到约 210 万。

在“停火”后，难民被挤到加沙不到一半的领土上，人口密度翻了一番，达到每平方公里约12000人，与纽约市相当。每个人只剩下大约82平方米（883平方英尺）的居住面积。

自“停火”以来，以色列军队多次将标示“黄线”的黄色混凝土块向西移动，有时甚至在一夜之间完成，从而扩大了其控制区域。卫星图像也记录了以色列军队控制区域内持续进行的爆破作业。

研究机构“法医建筑”（Forensic Architecture）估计，截至去年12月，以色列已控制加沙地带58%的地区。今年3月，以色列军方向援助机构提供了新的“橙线”地图，这条“橙线”位于“黄线”之外，是一个限制区域，人道主义行动必须与军方协调才能进入该区域。

据联合国人道事务协调厅称，目前限制措施覆盖了加沙地带65%的地区。一位联合国官员6月份在安理会表示，以色列方面称其控制着加沙地带约70%的领土。

这样一来，约有210万人居住在东京湾沿岸约35%的土地上，面积约为128平方公里（49平方英里）。自战前以来，东京湾沿岸的人口密度几乎增长了两倍，达到每平方公里约1.6万人，尤其是在东京市中心附近。

现在每个人大约拥有 61 平方米（657 平方英尺）的土地，用于建造房屋、道路、学校、医院和农田。

与东京不同，加沙几乎没有剩余空间安置民众。联合国卫星中心（UNOSAT）发现，加沙地带82%的建筑物遭到破坏或损毁。联合国粮食及农业组织表示，加沙仅有3%的耕地完好无损且可耕种。

联合国人道事务协调厅（OCHA）表示，加沙地带剩余的35%地区“已经过度拥挤”，援助组织在雨季来临前试图转移受灾家庭时，面临准入限制这一主要障碍。据联合国统计，超过95万人居住在面临洪水风险的流离失所者营地，其中大多数人住在帐篷和临时搭建的住所中，如下方卫星图像所示。

靠近“黄线”可能致命。以色列将黄线以外的地区视为自由射击区，靠近该区域的巴勒斯坦人曾遭到枪击。自停火协议宣布以来，加沙地带已有近1500人丧生。