‘Yellow line is new border,’ declares IDF chief, even though Israel earlier said no Gaza annexation plans
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "‘Yellow line is new border,’ declares IDF chief, even though Israel earlier said no Gaza annexation plans")
Israeli Defence Forces chief Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir Photograph: (AFP)
The region would give Israel control of more than half of Gaza, including the majority of the agricultural land and the border crossing with Egypt.
Israeli Defence Forces chief Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said that the “yellow line” that divides Gaza under Donald Trump’s ceasefire plan is a “new border” for Israel. Speaking during a visit to Beit Hanoun and Jabalia in northern Gaza, where he met with reservists, he said that Israel would hold its current military positions. Zamir’s statement comes despite Israel’s earlier declaration that it has no plans to annex the war-torn territory.
The region would give Israel control of more than half of Gaza, including the majority of the agricultural land and the border crossing with Egypt.
“The ‘yellow line’ is a new border line, serving as a forward defensive line for our communities and a line of operational activity,” Zamir said as per the English-language transcript of his remarks provided by a military spokesperson, reported the Guardian. “We have operational control over extensive parts of the Gaza Strip and we will remain on those defence lines.”
The surviving Palestinian population of over 2 million were forced to move into a narrow coastal zone due to Israeli attacks and evacuation orders in the eastern region of Gaza.
Zamir’s latest remarks come in contradiction to the ceasefire agreement signed in October, which states that “Israel will not occupy or annex Gaza”. Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials had also stated that they only want to disarm Hamas, not occupy Gaza.
Under the US President Donald Trump’s 20-point peace plan, the Israeli military needs to “progressively hand over” Palestinian territory to an international security force until they have “withdrawn completely from Gaza”, except for a small security perimeter along the border.
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Meanwhile, the Israeli government have not confirmed whether Zamir’s statement reflected official policy. The Guardian quoted an official as saying that the IDF troops were “deployed in Gaza in accordance with the ceasefire outline” and accused Hamas of violating the ceasefire.
Last month, the Guardian reported, citing US military planning documents, that the US military is planning to divide Gaza into a “green zone” that will be under Israeli and international military control, where reconstruction activities will take place, and a “red zone” that will be left in ruins. The war-torn strip will be divided by the current Israeli-controlled “yellow line”, it added.
