The U.S. and other world powers are reportedly preparing for an indefinite division of Gaza along the Israeli-occupied yellow line, as the U.S.’s plans falter and millions of Palestinians are set to pay the price.
Currently, under the ceasefire agreement that Israel is repeatedly violating, all of the Palestinians in Gaza have been forced into a small zone adjacent to the sea. This zone makes up less than half of Gaza’s land, with Israeli forces occupying a large area entirely surrounding the designated area for Palestinians that makes up 53 percent of the enclave.
U.S. news sources, citing U.S. and European officials, report that there isn’t a set plan for the current division to end, with the lives of millions of Palestinians — living in tents set up amid the rubble — currently in limbo.
The Guardian reports that the U.S. is planning to enclose Palestinians in a “red zone,” as established by the yellow line, where Palestinians would be forced to live among the ruins of Israel’s genocide. Meanwhile, reconstruction would begin in the “green zone,” which is occupied by the Israeli military.
“Ideally you would want to make it all whole, right? But that’s aspirational,” a U.S. military official told the outlet of the U.S.’s plans. “It’s going to take some time. It’s not going to be easy.”
Reuters reports, citing six European officials, that plans to move on from the initial phase of the ceasefire under President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan have stalled, leaving no pathways past the current division.
Negotiations regarding the role of the Israeli military, Hamas’s armaments, and an “International Stabilisation Force” are at an impasse. International governments are resisting pledging to send troops for the force, and advocates for Palestinian rights are criticizing the plan for an international force as a push for a colonial land grab. Meanwhile, Israel is vehemently resisting wording in Trump’s plan to create a “credible pathway” for a Palestinian state.
For weeks, the U.S. was promoting an idea for “alternative safe communities,” under which Palestinians would live in camps within the Israeli-occupied portion of the Strip. But those plans were dropped last week, The Guardian found.
Meanwhile, Palestinians are facing continued Israeli violence. Israel has broken the ceasefire agreement nearly 300 times in just the first month of its implementation, Gaza officials have said, killing at least 242 Palestinians and injuring 622 others.
Soldiers are still carrying out attacks on a near-daily basis. This includes Israeli incursions past the yellow line, as well as killings of Palestinians who, sometimes unknowingly, cross the yellow line the other way. Israel is still only allowing a fraction of the aid it’s supposed to under the ceasefire agreement, continuing to starve Palestinians and deprive them of basic needs.
An indefinite standstill in negotiations would inflict yet more violence and suffering upon Palestinians. Numerous officials have warned against maintaining this scenario.
“We don’t want to reach a situation of no war, no peace,” said Majed al-Ansari, Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson and adviser to the prime minister, last week.
“Gaza must not get stuck in a no man’s land between peace and war,” said U.K. Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper at a Middle East forum last week.
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1 Comment
Article was good on Gaza except for one sided on breaking ceasefire and also calling it a genocide . It was war