TheAltWorld How the Yellow and Orange Lines Expose Israel’s Territorial Theft in Gaza
SOON AFTER OCT. 7, 2023, Israeli officials indicated the intention to occupy Gaza. Less than a week later, a leaked 10-page document by Israel’s Intelligence Ministry exposed plans to forcibly transfer Palestinians in Gaza to the Sinai, with the help of the international community. Besides the ongoing forced displacement within Gaza, Israeli officials also pushed for the so-called voluntary transfer of Palestinians to host countries abroad but found no cooperation from the international community.
A NEW (YELLOW) BORDER?
Forced transfer, especially involving other countries, received more international backlash than territorial appropriation, already tried and tested since Israel’s military occupation of the West Bank in 1967. In October 2025, Israel first announced the Yellow Line, expelling Palestinians and marking 53 percent of Gaza under Israeli military occupation. By mid-November, the UK research agency Forensic Architecture noted that the Yellow Line demarcations, which Palestinians had said were constantly moved by the military, were already placed 950 meters (1,039 yards) further from the borders marked on the Israeli military’s maps.
In December 2025, U.N. Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric expressed opposition “to any alternation to the borders of Gaza and Israel.” The statement was made in response to Israel’s Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir declaring that the Yellow Line “represents the new border” in Gaza. By that time, Israel had already occupied 53 percent of Gaza’s territory, with the Yellow Line ostensibly serving as a demarcation between the illegal military occupation and areas in which Hamas maintained its presence. Israel’s military occupation of Gaza directly contradicts Point 16 of U.S. President Donald Trump’s 20-Point Plan, which states that “Israel will not occupy or annex Gaza.”
LAND THEFT BY WAY OF AN ORANGE LINE
When Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu confirmed in May 2026 that the military had occupied two thirds of Gaza, the new Orange Line was already known but not publicized. It was only when media reports revealed that the Orange Line added 11 percent of Gaza’s territory to the 53 percent already demarcated by the Yellow Line that it became a prominent new cause for concern.
Israel’s territorial theft is not happening in a vacuum. The Orange Line is physically unmarked on the ground. While its existence was first mentioned as a concern for humanitarian organizations and aid distribution, the politics sustaining the Orange Line emanate from the U.S. Board of Peace and several statements made by the Board’s High Representative Nickolay Mladenov. The U.N.’s cooperation with the U.S. Board of Peace, as Secretary General António Guterres stated in March, also contributes to Israel’s expanding military occupation in Gaza.
In fact, a January 2026 report by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) mentioned the Orange Line in terms of Palestinian population presence as an area “with an estimated 14,133 households.” OCHA’s February 2026 report carries another mention of the Orange Line, noting that the Israeli authorities were requesting coordination for humanitarian assistance for more than 1,800 Palestinian families in Deir al-Balah.
By the time the Orange Line was publicized in the media, the U.S. Board of Peace and Mladenov had already laid the groundwork to normalize Israel’s next step in territorial theft.
In March 2026, Mladenov revealed the five stages of disarmament for Hamas. “Decommissioning [arms] proceeds in parallel with staged withdrawal,” Mladenov explained. However, while Hamas has refused to disarm, which constitutes a single stance, Israel continued expanding its military presence in Gaza. Therefore, while officials may term the current standoff as a stalemate, there is a reality of continuous illegal military occupation in Gaza.
Just five days later, Israel’s Gaza Coordination and Liaison Administration presented the Orange Line map to international aid organizations. The area between the Yellow Line and the Orange Line has been declared a buffer zone and is administered by the Israeli military, thus further hindering the entry and distribution of humanitarian aid for forcibly displaced Palestinians crammed in the remaining 36 percent of Gaza.
According to Israeli media, the military sent maps in mid-March to indicate the new borders. The new demarcation was mentioned by the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in one of its weekly updates in March: 10 of the agency’s installations, including emergency shelters for forcibly displaced Palestinians, now lay in the buffer zone.
THE CEASEFIRE THAT ISN’T
In a letter sent in May to the technocratic government in Gaza, Mladenov noted that Israel would not be held accountable for violating the October ceasefire terms if Hamas refused to disarm. “Failure by Hamas to accept the framework within a reasonable timeframe, as determined by the Board of Peace and after consultation with the parties, shall render such commitments null and void,” the letter partly stated. It was a facetious warning, since Israel has at no time ceased firing at Gazan civilians.
A week later, three days before the 78th commemoration of the Nakba, Israeli media ran a news report noting engineering work along the Orange Line was done with the U.S. Board of Peace’s full approval. Once again, Israel’s extension of its military occupation in Gaza was linked to Hamas’ refusal to disarm.
One day later, Mladenov said that Hamas could have a political role post-Gaza, if the resistance group disarms. However, the international community’s failure to curb Israeli actions in any way makes such statements unlikely to stand in the face of Israel’s grip over the territory.
BOARD OF PEACE OVERSEES ISRAELI LAND GRAB
As Mladenov stated in a press briefing in Jerusalem just one day before the Nakba anniversary, “The longer we don’t address the future, the more we stabilize the status quo, and that status quo becomes more difficult to remove.” However, it is becoming clear that the Board of Peace’s role was to preserve what Mladenov describes as the current status quo. With Hamas refusing to disarm until Israel withdraws, and the U.N. tacitly approving Israel’s military occupation of Gaza through the Board of Peace, the Orange Line presents the middle ground to the entire military occupation of Gaza.
Publicizing the Orange Line also sets the scene for a recently revealed detail. The U.N. Security Council signed off its authority when it passed the resolution determining the U.S. Board of Peace taking control over Gaza’s reconstruction. Four months since its launch, the board has not received any of the pledged funds. Notably, the Financial Times report states that $3 million from Morocco and $20 million from the UAE have funded Mladenov’s office as well as salaries for the Palestinian technocratic government.
By contrast, in February 2026 Trump had announced that the Board of Peace had pledged $5 billion to rebuild Gaza. Yet the U.N. had made it clear since October 2025 that $70 billion would be required for Gaza’s reconstruction. As the figures in the Financial Times report reveal, the Board of Peace is sustaining itself with the funds received. Meanwhile, an unnamed Board of Peace spokesperson stated that no contracts have been awarded yet because Hamas has not disarmed. The statement mirrors Mladenov’s recent address to the U.N. Security Council in New York: “Reconstruction financing will not follow where weapons have not been laid down,” Mladenov stated. “No investment, no movement, no horizon.”
However, Mladenov’s statement does not reveal the full picture. The Orange Line constitutes colonial movement and military occupation. While Mladenov presents an alleged status quo, Israel is freely moving within the confines of the term, encroaching upon Palestinian territory while Palestinians are crammed into what remains of Gaza outside of Israel’s military occupation of the territory. Not long after the Orange Line made the news, Netanyahu announced that his new directive to the Israeli military was to take 70 percent of Gaza.
The Board of Peace repeatedly stated that reconstruction will not be carried out in areas where Hamas still operates. What remains unspecified so far by the Board of Peace is the absence of reconstruction in areas under Israeli military occupation, unless one counts the infrastructure carried out by the military itself for its own purposes. At some point, the Yellow Line was linked to reconstruction rather than territorial theft. With Netanyahu now asserting Israel’s colonial expansion in Gaza, which narrative stands to win? The Board of Peace is leaving space for Israel’s territorial appropriation; not even the usual futile diplomacy carries its previous weight. As the Yellow Line and Orange Line expel Palestinians from Gaza’s territory and humanitarian aid becomes more inaccessible, the Board of Peace is fast becoming Israel’s mechanism of impunity, with territorial gains as its proof.
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