Satellite Images Reveal a Growing Barrier Splitting Gaza in Two

Satellite images reviewed by the Associated Press and multiple other outlets show the Israeli military has quietly built more than 14 miles (23 kilometers) of earthen barrier inside the Gaza Strip in recent months — cutting through Palestinian communities already leveled by the war and further entrenching a division of the territory that was originally supposed to be temporary.

The barrier follows the route of the so-called "yellow line," the boundary Israeli troops withdrew to under the U.S.-backed ceasefire agreement signed with Hamas in October 2025. That line was designed as a staging point ahead of a fuller Israeli withdrawal from Gaza — not a permanent border. When shown the satellite imagery, Israel's military confirmed to the AP that it has built a physical barrier along the yellow line's path, consisting of an earthen berm and trench that in some places, according to Israeli newspaper Haaretz, extends beyond the line itself: about a quarter-mile past it near Khan Younis, and, as of the most recent imagery reviewed in the Rafah area, nearly a full mile.

The line has been contested since the ceasefire began

This isn't the first time the yellow line's exact position has come into question. Within weeks of the October ceasefire taking effect, a BBC Verify analysis of drone footage found that physical markers Israeli troops placed on the ground — yellow concrete blocks — sat as much as 520 meters deeper inside Gaza than the boundary shown on the maps the Israeli military itself had published. Three different maps of the line had already circulated from the White House, President Trump, and the Israeli military in the run-up to the ceasefire, without full agreement between them. The current barrier construction is best understood as a continuation of that ambiguity, not a sudden departure from it — the line has been drawn, redrawn, and physically shifted more than once since the guns first went quiet.

A structure that keeps growing, week by week

What makes the story more than a single data point is the pace of construction, tracked through repeated satellite passes by Planet Labs PBC. A segment in southern Gaza measured about 500 meters on July 1; by July 15 it had grown to roughly 2.4 kilometers — nearly five times longer in two weeks — as it works to separate the Israeli-controlled ruins of Rafah from Muwasi, home to some of the largest Palestinian displacement camps in the strip. If that stretch continues in its current direction, it will connect to the barrier's longest unbroken segment, which already runs nearly 17 kilometers from Khan Younis north toward Gaza City.

What the barrier separates

The barrier currently divides more than half of Gaza — the portion under Israeli military control — from the rest of the roughly 40-kilometer-long, 11-kilometer-wide territory, which is home to more than 2 million Palestinians. New roads have also been built and military bases established on the ruins of Palestinian towns inside the Israeli-controlled zone, according to reporting reviewed by Al Jazeera.

Why it matters beyond the construction itself

The practical effect, independent of any party's stated intentions, is that a line meant to be temporary is beginning to look permanent on the ground. That has fueled concern among Palestinians and international observers that the yellow line — and the roughly half of Gaza on the Israeli-controlled side of it — may not be relinquished as the ceasefire framework originally envisioned. Israeli officials have not publicly detailed a timeline for further withdrawal, and as of this week, construction on at least one segment of the barrier was continuing to extend further south.

Other details here are informed by reporting from Washington Post, The Times of Israel, and AP via Yahoo News.