Israel Is Trying to Divide Gaza in Half Along the ‘Yellow Line’–What Is It, and Is It Here to Stay?

PALESTINE ISRAEL GAZA GENOCIDE, 10 Nov 2025

Mondoweiss Palestine Bureau and Qassam Muaddi | Mondoweiss - TRANSCEND Media Service

A yellow concrete block placed by Israeli army in Gaza demarcates the “Yellow Line” as part of the US-brokered ceasefire with Hamas, 2 Nov 2025. (Photo: Ahmed Ibrahim/APA Images)

The “Yellow Line” splitting Gaza in two is meant to be temporary according to Trump’s “peace” plan. However, the fact that those terms were intentionally left vague suggests that the partition of Gaza was the real goal all along.

6 Nov 2025 – Today, there are essentially two Gazas. One is ruled by Hamas as the de facto governing body in the Strip, and makes up about 47% of the territory. The remaining 53% is under the total military control of the Israeli army.

Separating these two zones is an invisible border that’s being called “the Yellow Line,” splitting Gaza roughly in half down the middle. Even though Israel has been placing yellow cement blocks all across Gaza to demarcate the line, it’s supposed to be temporary. But what makes it very real is the number of people who are being killed near it.

According to the ongoing ceasefire agreement brokered by U.S. President Trump, this “temporary” withdrawal line is supposed to be moved back after the end of the ceasefire’s first phase, which is approaching its one-month mark. Negotiations are underway to advance to the second phase, but recent statements and reports indicate that the current division of Gaza could be permanent. There’s also something else to consider, and it’s even more troubling: what if the partition of Gaza is the point?

What’s on either side of the Yellow Line?

The Yellow Line runs down Gaza from north to south, splitting it in two halves. West of the line is the area from which the Israeli army has withdrawn, including the major destroyed urban centers where most of Gaza’s displaced population is concentrated. It’s also where Hamas’s armed elements have reemerged in public, and have been attempting to reimpose order and the rule of law in the Strip.

East of the line is the area controlled by the Israeli army, covering most of northern Gaza, all of Rafah, and the eastern parts of the whole territory. According to the ceasefire deal, the Israeli army will be stationed in this area until the completion of the first phase, and is expected to withdraw further back in the second phase of the deal. Eventually, it is supposed to make a full withdrawal from the entire Strip.

In order to get there, the second phase will include talks over the definitive end of the war, including Hamas’s handover of control of Gaza’s administration to another body and the disarmament of its armed wing. Hamas has already committed to the first condition, alongside all the other Palestinian factions, who have agreed to the formation of a technocratic committee of politically unaffiliated Palestinians who would rule Gaza under a “Board of Peace” headed by Trump.

As for the second condition — disarmament — Hamas has said that it would not give up its weapons before a Palestinian state is established. But just yesterday, senior Hamas leader Musa Abu Marzouk indicated flexibility on the issue when he said that Hamas would be willing to negotiate over the handover of weapons that are able to strike beyond Gaza’s borders, but that it would retain the possession of its light arms to maintain security.

The reality is that Trump’s entire “20-point” framework is vague on details, and maybe intentionally so. The plan is ostensibly divided into three overall phases, and the steps toward completing each phase leave many questions unanswered. Short of any enforcement mechanisms, conditioning later Israeli withdrawals on the verification of Hamas disarmament, the plan is riddled with pitfalls where Israel could claim that Hamas has “violated” the terms of the agreement, hence postponing its withdrawal from Gaza indefinitely.

We’ve seen some of this already. Last week, the Israeli army resumed its bombing of Gaza for several hours, killing 100 people in a single day following the death of an Israeli soldier.

Israel says that the unconditional disarmament of Hamas is its precondition for moving on to the second phase of the ceasefire. The problem is that it’s not really clear what disarmament means. Nothing in Trump’s plan specifies the steps by which Hamas would disarm, and it isn’t clear if disarming includes light weapons, according to what timetable, and to what party it would hand them over.

Israel has chosen to define disarmament as a process that could take years. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has stated that disarming Hamas entails dismantling all of its military infrastructure, including its massive tunnel network and manufacturing workshops. What makes this even more complicated is that the full extent of this infrastructure is the product of pure speculation, and Israel has been unable to dismantle it during two years of full mobilization of its forces. This leaves Israel the opportunity to claim, at any moment, that Hamas hasn’t fully disarmed.

Dividing Gaza is the point

This ambiguity is intentional. It leaves both Israel and the U.S. the freedom to interpret the meaning of the plan to suit their respective interests. For the moment, those interests seem to be the prolongation of Gaza’s de facto segregation.

But if the vagueness of Trump’s terms is intentional, then the partition of Gaza is the plan.

Recent statements from U.S. officials suggest that’s where things are headed. During his visit to Israel two weeks ago, U.S. Vice President JD Vance said that Palestinians should be able to move into a “Hamas-free zone” in southern Gaza “in the next couple of months.” During the same visit, Jared Kushner said that no reconstruction will take place in any area still controlled by Hamas.

And just last Sunday, the Times of Israel reported that the U.S. is planning on building a “new Gaza” in the area controlled by Israel, with plans envisioning the construction of some six residential areas. The Times of Israel reported that representatives from donor countries who have pledged to fund reconstruction, mostly Gulf states, have expressed skepticism that such a plan would work

Given the current stagnation, the intentional ambiguity of Trump’s plan is laying the groundwork for the Yellow Line to become permanent. What we’re seeing before us is the quiet rollout of a plan to divide Gaza’s territory in a way that fulfills goals Israel has been saying it wants to do for months — to draw Palestinians to specific areas, depopulate Gaza’s main urban centers, and place the entire Strip under U.S. control to pave the way for mega-investments.

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Qassam Muaddi is the Palestine Staff Writer for Mondoweiss.

The Mondoweiss Palestine Bureau are the Mondoweiss staff members based in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

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