How Far Will the World Let Gaza's Borders Be Redrawn?

Author: Erina Bazán López

May 17, 2026

HRRC calls for a framework that recognizes territorial rights and immediate humanitarian access as essential for survival, insisting that a ceasefire cannot hold while military boundaries continue to expand and basic services are blocked. Further, we continue to urge Israel to end its aggressive military campaign against the Palestinian people.

Tents sheltering displaced Palestinians in western Gaza City on May 10, as reports indicate that Israeli forces have expanded their control over more than half of Gaza. [Image credit: Ahmed Al Arini/Middle East Images/AFP/Getty Images]

Since the ceasefire took effect on October 10, 2025, the Israeli military has not withdrawn from Gaza as planned in the agreement; instead, it has expanded its presence westward. While the initial "Yellow Line" covered about 53% of the enclave, the newly-emerged “Orange Line” has increased Israeli military control to roughly 64% of Gaza. This expansion was carried out with the knowledge of the US-led Board of Peace, which cited alleged violations by Hamas and a failure to meet disarmament schedules as justification for the move.

The relocation of concrete markers and intensive land leveling has reduced the space available for Palestinian residents to approximately 35-38% of the territory. This reduction of living space constitutes a direct breach of the original boundaries established by the Oslo Accords and the Sharm El-Sheikh understandings. Families have been forced into new waves of displacement, moving further west to avoid airstrikes, artillery, and live fire that accompany the military advance.

The human cost of this territorial expansion is significant, with more than 800 Palestinians killed by the Israeli military since the supposed end of hostilities in October 2025. Military engineering units are reportedly engaged in extensive work to flatten infrastructure along the route of the new line, a strategy that makes the future reconstruction of the Gaza Strip increasingly difficult. These operations have also targeted specific individuals, such as the families of negotiators and police officers, contributing to a state of lawlessness within the remaining areas.

This concentration of the population in ever-shrinking areas has led to a near-collapse of the health system. The lack of humanitarian access, compounded by an Israeli blockade on aid and personnel since March 2025, has resulted in a public health crisis. Rodent infestations are expanding in emergency shelters and tents, biting residents and contaminating living spaces, while there is a sharp rise in skin infections spread by parasites such as fleas. These conditions are exacerbated by untreated waste sites and the exhaustion of food supplies.

Political and public narratives have turned increasingly hostile toward the prospect of Palestinian self-determination. Israeli officials have explicitly stated that their actions are geared towards "destroying the idea of a Palestinian state" and encourage settlement expansion. This climate of hostility extends to international observers and journalists; at least 220 journalists and 589 humanitarian workers have been killed by the Israeli military in Gaza since October 2023. This pattern of exclusion is also seen internationally, such as in reports of the Belgian European consulate refusing services to citizens residing beyond the “Green Line”, a shining example of coherent pushback to the international crimes that are not currently facing international sanctions or sufficient pressure.

The Israeli government has further entrenched this reality through administrative measures targeting the foundation of Palestinian governance. On May 10, 2026, the Knesset Ministerial Committee backed a bill to formally repeal the 1993 Oslo Accords, which would effectively end the administrative role of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Gaza. In these accords was where the little margin for the people in the occupied territories of Palestine managed to get Israel to concede to accept the Palestinian Liberation Organisation as a legitimate representative of the Palestinians, as well as establishing the PA (Palestinian Authority) to govern matters such as public order, administrative processes and within a limited frame, internal security; which thanks to these accords meant that Palestinians were able to have this small margin where they could control some aspects of their own lives outside of the oppressive apartheid regime of Israel. The PA has continued in the occupied territories to this day, and repealing the accords could mark a step back in this monumental step in the long struggle of the Palestinians for their autonomy. 

Additionally, laws passed in October 2024 have been used to prohibit UNRWA’s (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees in the near east) operations, with authorities refusing to grant visas or permits to international staff since early 2025.

Ultimately, the redrawing of these lines suggests a strategy of creating permanent facts on the ground. By solidifying the "Orange Line," the military is creating a permanent separation that risks the total disappearance of Gaza as a contiguous territory. Without a change in policy that prioritizes withdrawal and the restoration of humanitarian services, the current strategy of containment and infrastructure destruction will lead to the permanent displacement of the Palestinian population. Without the international community stopping or intervening in this egregious violation of International Law and Human Rights Law, Israel is likely to continue with these kinds of actions. We should not only not stand silent in the face of such acts, but also shouldn’t stand still; action must prevail.

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Glossary

• Annexation : possession taken of a piece of land or a country, usually by force or without permission.

• Armistice : a formal agreement between two countries or groups at war to stop fighting for a particular time, especially to talk about possible peace.

• Artillery: very large guns that are moved on wheels or metal tracks, or the part of the army that uses these.

• Blockade : the situation in which a country or place is surrounded by soldiers or ships to stop people or goods from going in or out.

• Ceasefire : an agreement, usually between two armies, to stop fighting in order to allow discussions about peace.

• Coherent: If an argument, set of ideas, or a plan is coherent, it is clear and carefully considered, and each part of it connects or follows in a natural or reasonable way.

• Contaminate: to make something less pure or make it poisonous.

• Contiguous : next to or touching another, usually similar, thing.

• Disarmament : the act of taking away or giving up weapons.

• Displacement : the situation in which people are forced to leave the place where they normally live.

• Enclave : a part of a country that is surrounded by another country, or a group of people who are different from the people living in the surrounding area.

• Green Line :  the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, and marked Israel’s borders (78% of Mandate Palestine) for the first 18 years of its existence.

• Hamas: militant Palestinian nationalist and Islamist movement in the West Bank and Gaza Strip that is dedicated to the establishment of an independent Islamic state in historical Palestine.

• Humanitarian : involved in or connected with improving people's lives and reducing suffering.

• Infrastructure : the basic systems and services, such as transport and power supplies, that a country or organization uses in order to work effectively.

• Infesting : to cause a problem by being present in large numbers, spreading disease or causing damage or danger.

• Knesset : Israel's house of representatives (the parliament), and has four main functions:To pass laws – the Knesset has the sole authority to pass laws - to supervise government work, to choose the President of Israel and the state comptroller, and to deliberate over state issues through the Knesset committees and the work of the Assembly.

• Land Leveling: reshaping the natural contours of the land to eliminate variations in elevation, thereby ensuring that the surface is even and suitable for specific purposes.

• Orange Line : extends and modifies the March 18 buffer zone, previously described. It's main added incursions are a thickening of the southern border with Egypt, and an inclusion of more of the Netzarim Corridor surrounding the new Israeli road that bisects the Gaza strip. 

• Oslo Accords : set of agreements between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) that established a peace process for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through a mutually negotiated two-state solution.

• Palestinian Authority : a governmental body established during the 1990s as part the Oslo Accords signed between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The PA was supposed to be a temporary government on the way to the creation of an independent Palestinian state in the occupied Palestinian territories (West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza) by 1999 as part of a two-state solution and permanent regional peace agreement...

• Parasites : an organism living in, on, or with another organism in order to obtain nutrients, grow, or multiply often in a state that directly or indirectly harms the host.

• Redrawing : to change something, especially the borders between countries or regions.

• Rodent: any of various small mammals with large, sharp front teeth, such as mice and rats.

• Sanctions : an official order, such as the stopping of trade, that is taken against a country in order to make it obey international law.

• Self-determination : the ability or power to make decisions for yourself, especially the power of a nation to decide how it will be governed.

• Settlements : colonies built by Israel inside the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), including the West Bank and East Jerusalem. They include both officially recognised residential areas and smaller outposts, which are established without prior government approval and are often legalised later.

• Sharm El-Sheikh understandings :  memorandum signed on September 4, 1999, by Prime Minister of Israel Ehud Barak and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat at Sharm el Sheikh in Egypt, overseen by the United States represented by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. The memorandum was witnessed and co-signed by President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and King Abdullah of Jordan. 

• Violation : an action that breaks or acts against something, especially a law, agreement, principle, or something that should be treated with respect.

• Withdrawal : the process or action of a military force moving out of an area.

• Yellow Line : a de facto military demarcation associated with ceasefire arrangements and enforced through Israeli operational control. In some places, it is marked by yellow-painted concrete barriers, cleared corridors, and restricted access zones. It shapes civilian movement and territorial control without constituting a formally delimited boundary.