The truce that was supposed to wind down the war in Gaza has instead coincided with a steady expansion of Israeli military control, according to Israeli leaders’ own statements and mapping data reviewed by news organizations and humanitarian agencies. When the United States brokered the ceasefire in October 2025, Israeli forces held roughly half of the territory. Nine months later, NPR reports the military now controls close to 70 percent of Gaza, pushing westward along a boundary known as the “yellow line.”
That advance has compressed roughly 2 million Palestinians into the shrinking strip of land not under direct Israeli control, reviving fears of renewed mass displacement. The expansion has been marked by continued shelling, gunfire and demolitions that United Nations agencies and aid organizations describe as a mounting threat to civilians, and that critics characterize as inconsistent with the ceasefire.
An expanding “orange zone”
The single largest jump came in mid-March. While international attention was fixed on the U.S.-Israeli confrontation with Iran, Israeli troops designated a new “orange zone” running north to south and, in doing so, took control of an additional 10 percent of Gaza, according to NPR’s reporting. Israel’s military marked the zone on maps distributed to aid groups, which now say they must give prior notification before entering. With more than 400 aid workers killed over the course of the war, several organizations suspended operations in the northern orange zone until conditions are clarified.
On the ground, the new lines are largely invisible. Residents describe yellow concrete blocks placed on dirt berms as the only markers, with no clear demarcation of where the orange zone begins or ends. Israel’s military did not respond to NPR’s multiple requests for comment.
Netanyahu’s stated plan
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has framed the widening footprint as a deliberate strategy. In remarks recorded by Israel’s Channel 12 in May, he said Israel controlled half of Gaza when the ceasefire began before expanding to 60 percent, and he directed the army to reach 70 percent. As Al Jazeera reported, Netanyahu said, “we are fully in control of 60 percent of the territory of the Gaza Strip,” adding that his instruction was to reach 70 percent. When an audience member shouted that Israel should seize the entire enclave, he replied that the country was proceeding “in order.”
The expansion is unfolding even as President Trump’s broader peace framework, which calls for an Israeli withdrawal, a new governing arrangement in Gaza and the disarmament of Hamas, has stalled nine months after the ceasefire was reached.
A rising civilian toll
The U.N. humanitarian office says roughly 200 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since the ceasefire began in areas close to the shifting lines of control, and that about a third of those killed were women and children. In a joint statement, U.N. agencies and aid groups said the moving boundaries are restricting aid access for thousands of families and contributing to deadly incidents as people move through poorly marked areas.
Those deaths are part of a larger figure. Gaza’s health ministry says more than 1,000 people, at least 1,005 as of mid-June, have been killed across the territory since the truce took hold. Israel’s military has said its forces fired in self-defense at individuals who posed an immediate threat to troops. Over the full span of the war, the health ministry counts more than 73,000 people killed.
Life inside the zone
In the eastern Gaza City neighborhood of al-Shujaiya, now inside Israel’s expanding zone of control, residents told NPR that Israeli tank shelling and gunfire intensify after dark, with sporadic fire heard throughout the day. Aid operations there have been halted since March, and ambulances require Israeli permission to enter. “No one dares go outside” after sunset, resident Abu Ahmed Humeid said, describing families who pray each evening before sheltering in bombed-out homes.
The neighborhood, home to more than 100,000 people before the war, has emptied out. About 500 families were living there when the ceasefire began; fewer than 50 remain. The nearest source of drinking water is a half-hour walk away, and there are no clinics, bakeries or shops. Many who stay say they have nowhere else to go. “Where are we supposed to go? I’ve been displaced a lot already,” said Niveen al-Hattab, who shelters with her family in a ground-floor shop beneath their destroyed apartment building after her tent was destroyed in an earlier airstrike.
For residents caught between the yellow and orange lines, the distinction between war and ceasefire has become difficult to discern. As Humeid put it, homes keep getting hit “because they’re trying to push us out,” yet leaving feels impossible in the place “where our parents and grandparents lived.”
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