The Israeli military is constructing a massive earthen barrier inside the Gaza Strip, with more than 23 kilometres already built, according to satellite imagery provided by Planet Labs PBC and confirmed by the military to the Associated Press. The barrier runs along the so-called “yellow line,” the boundary to which Israeli forces withdrew under the October 2025 ceasefire deal with Hamas, and now separates the over 50 per cent of the territory controlled by Israel from the areas where the Palestinian population is concentrated. Simultaneously, the UN human rights office condemned the recent intensification of Israeli military attacks, stating that at least 57 Palestinians, including six children and eight women, were killed between 13 and 20 July.

The Israeli military told the Associated Press that the barrier, combined with a “security zone” equipped with intelligence and technological assets, aims to prevent infiltration and protect Israeli troops and communities near Gaza. It declined to specify how far the barrier would extend. The UN spokesman Thameen Al-Kheetan declared that “nine months after the announcement of a ceasefire, still, nowhere is safe for Palestinians in Gaza,” and warned that the killing of civilians in attacks on residential buildings and a tent camp “raises concerns of continuing violations of international humanitarian law, war crimes and other possible atrocity crimes.” Palestinian analysts, quoted by Al Ittihad, described a humanitarian catastrophe marked by hunger, thirst, and the collapse of basic services, and called for urgent international intervention.

The barrier’s construction, which accelerated in recent weeks—a southern segment grew from 500 metres to 2.4 kilometres between 1 and 15 July—is physically entrenching a division that the US-backed ceasefire agreement had envisioned as temporary. Satellite images show that on the Israeli-controlled side, the military has levelled vast areas, including the city of Rafah, and built new roads and bases. The population of over two million has been pushed into a shrinking coastal strip west of the line, living in squalid tent camps and dependent on aid. The UN noted that the regular westward shifting of the yellow line and apparent routine firing on Palestinians near it “presents a continuous threat to life.”

The ceasefire, which took effect in October 2025, has been marred by near-daily violence; Gaza’s health ministry reports that 1,168 Palestinians have been killed since then. Neither the US Central Command, tasked with monitoring the truce, nor the Board of Peace led by President Donald Trump, which is meant to oversee Gaza’s future, commented on the barrier. The Israeli military has justified recent strikes as targeting Hamas and Islamic Jihad operatives, while acknowledging it is investigating the results of an airstrike that killed a family of six in Gaza City. With the truce stagnating and construction continuing, the barrier appears to be solidifying a de facto partition, heightening Palestinian fears that the yellow line is becoming a permanent border.