By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Ebrahim Hajjaj
CAIRO/GAZA, July 28 (Reuters) – On a road in Gaza City’s Zeitoun district, Palestinian resident Assem Dawla loaded mattresses and bags onto a truck as concrete yellow blocks marking the edge of Israel’s expanding military zone stood amid the rubble nearby.
He said it was the seventh or eighth time since the war began that he and his family had been forced to leave a shelter because of Israeli evacuation orders and the advance of what residents call the yellow line.
Zeitoun is one of at least five locations across Gaza where residents and Hamas officials say Israel has expanded areas under its control in recent days by moving forward the yellow line, a military demarcation established under a U.S.-brokered ceasefire reached in October.
As men hoisted belongings onto a waiting truck, elderly relatives picked their way through debris. Continued Israeli military activity made it too dangerous to remain, Dawla said.
“We are taking our belongings out and going to leave the place because the occupation (Israel) has moved the yellow line all the way to Salah al-Din Street,” he said.
With the October ceasefire, President Donald Trump set out a peace plan for Gaza that largely halted major fighting after two years of devastating Israeli war in Gaza triggered by Hamas’ attack on southern Israel.
The plan called for a surge in humanitarian aid, governance by a civilian Palestinian administration, the disarmament of Hamas, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and the deployment of an international force to help maintain security.
But progress has stalled.
Israel effectively controlled an estimated 64% of Gaza by late April. Nearly all of the territory’s roughly 2 million residents are concentrated in a narrow coastal area under Hamas control, living largely in damaged buildings or makeshift shelters and facing dire humanitarian conditions.
Hamas has so far refused to disarm, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on May 28 that Israel intends to expand the area under its control to 70% of the enclave. Israeli forces have continued near-daily military strikes across Gaza.
WARNINGS VIA TEXT AND DRONES
Residents in Deir al-Balah, Khan Younis, Gaza City’s Zeitoun, Tuffah and Shejaia neighbourhoods, as well as northern Rafah, told Reuters that Israeli forces have advanced the yellow block markers during the past 10 days, triggering new waves of displacement in areas already devastated by months of conflict.
At least seven people interviewed by Reuters said residents in some affected areas received warnings via text messages or drone-mounted loudspeakers before leaving once again.
The Israeli military said its forces are deployed in Gaza to protect Israel from attack and that the yellow line was being clearly marked on the ground to reduce the risk of contact between troops and civilians.
“IDF’s (Israel Defense Forces) defensive posture in the area includes a security zone, a physical barrier, intelligence capabilities, technological means, and operational activity by IDF troops,” the military said.
For many Gazans ordered to move, the process has become painfully familiar: gathering whatever survived the previous displacement — a few blankets, a cooking pot, a child’s schoolbag — and setting out, often after dark, for another area designated as safe by the Israeli military.
MULTIPLE DISPLACEMENTS
Near the shattered remains of buildings in Zeitoun, Dawla’s mother, Umm Sami, limped through what was left of the family’s property, collecting whatever could still be salvaged.
“Why am I leaving? They (Israeli army) became close, they put the yellow line here. The day before, they struck there, and we left,” she said.
Like most of Gaza’s population, Dawla’s family has been displaced multiple times since the war began, rebuilding temporary shelters only to be ordered to move again days or weeks later.
In a statement issued on July 20, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said an Israeli displacement order in Zeitoun forced 30 families from their tents, which residents said were subsequently destroyed.
As trucks carrying the remnants of household lives rolled away and a child walked past yellow blocks protruding from the wreckage, residents faced yet another uncertain journey.
“The whole war is displacement, displacement. You can’t stay anywhere without (Israel) telling you, ‘Get out of here, we want to come in,'” Dawla said.
(Additional reporting by Maayan Lubell in JerusalemEditing by Ros Russell)
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