Residents in areas east of Gaza City were forced to leave after their locations fell within the yellow line, which Israeli forces expanded west of the Shuja'iyya neighbourhood. After being moved, the line was estimated to be about 10 metres from Salah al-Din Road in the east of the city.
Ceasefire agreement and deployment boundaries
The development coincides with the first anniversary of the ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip, which followed a war that killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, caused widespread destruction and created an unprecedented humanitarian crisis in the Strip. Under the ceasefire agreement, Israeli forces were allowed to remain in 53 per cent of the Gaza Strip.
Israel marked these areas with barriers it called the “yellow line”, but official data indicates that, a year after the agreement, it still controls around 70 per cent of the Strip. Since the ceasefire took effect, Israel has reduced the frequency of its attacks but has continued to carry out strikes inside the Gaza Strip on an almost daily basis.
Toll of strikes and Netanyahu’s threats
The Gaza Health Ministry said that around 1,450 Palestinians had been killed in Israeli strikes since the agreement took effect. In a related development, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to kill all those who took part in the 7 October attack. Netanyahu is preparing to contest a closely fought legislative election scheduled for late October this year.
During this year’s commemoration of the attack, Netanyahu said that 4,000 of the 6,000 people he said had taken part in it had been killed.
His remarks came as the escalation on the ground inside Gaza continued despite the passing of a year since the ceasefire agreement.
