Gaza access curbs cover 65% of land as Israel shifts line

Gaza access curbs now cover 65% of the territory, leaving 2.1 million Palestinians squeezed into about 35% as Israeli forces push further west.

Israeli troops on Sunday shifted the yellow blocks marking the line several dozen metres further west in Shujaiya, eastern Gaza City. As a result, Palestinian families had to leave the area.

The line traces the first Israeli pullback in the opening stage of US President Donald Trump’s 20-point peace plan. That plan also foresaw more withdrawals in stages.

How the yellow line keeps moving

When the truce began, 53% of the strip lay under Israeli control. Palestinians kept the remaining 47%, or about 172 square kilometres.

Israeli troops have since dragged the markers west again and again, at times after dark, shrinking Gaza access for residents. In doing so, they have widened the areas under their control.

In December, the research group Forensic Architecture estimated that Israel controlled 58% of Gaza. Then, in March, the Israeli army handed aid groups maps of a new “orange line”, a zone beyond the yellow line where every humanitarian movement needs military coordination.

Gaza access limits deepen overcrowding

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has warned that limits on access to 65% of the land remain a key obstacle to aid work. The rest of the strip, it said, is already overcrowded.

Residents now crowd into roughly 128 square kilometres. Density there has hit around 16,000 people per square kilometre. Before the war, by comparison, the figure stood at about 6,000.

On average, each person now has only about 61 square metres for housing, roads, schools, hospitals and farmland.

Moreover, the destruction leaves little room to rebuild. UNOSAT, the UN satellite agency, found damage or destruction at 82% of structures in Gaza. Just 3% of farmland remains both intact and reachable, the UN food agency said.

Flood risk ahead of winter

More than 950,000 people now live in displacement sites at risk of flooding, mostly in tents or makeshift shelters. In its latest report, OCHA said about 279,000 people shelter in 400 flood-prone sites.

In addition, more than 2,300 unsafe buildings that need demolition remain in use, housing nearly 44,000 people. Together, these groups make up over 13% of Gaza’s population, OCHA said.

Aid partners are laying sandbags, clearing drains and raising shelters before the rains. They are also looking for safe sites to relocate families. Yet the tight Gaza access rules and limits on supplies continue to hold that work back.

OCHA also said that a lack of oil for engines, along with missing parts and machinery, has cut water desalination in the south. Funding gaps will also shrink hot meal production and food parcel deliveries from October.

UN official Ramiz Alakbarov told the Security Council in late September that “the health situation remains critical.” He added that Israeli authorities continued to withhold about $6 billion in Palestinian clearance revenues.

Meanwhile, the death toll in Gaza since the truce began has climbed to nearly 1,500. For many Palestinian families, each shift of the yellow line means losing yet more ground.