Israel Displaces Families by Building New Land Blocks in Gaza.

“We have been displaced from place to place and now we have nowhere to go,” said Umm Mohammed al-Shawish.

Israel is desperately looking for a place to live in the Gaza Strip after removing yellow concrete blocks marking the area it controls.

Families in al-Tufah in northern Gaza woke up on Monday to find the borders had been moved westward to the center of Salah al-Din Road, a north-south route through Gaza.

Nearby, an Israeli flag flies atop a 3-meter (10-foot) high earth barrier.

Al Shawish’s family home was destroyed during the war. On Sunday, they had to flee again after the Israeli army called to warn of an attack on a nearby building. Their shelter was only a tent torn apart by the strike.

“We are going to die here,” said Mohammed Al Shawish. “Better death than shame. No one will stand with us.”

In the US-brokered ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas last October, Israel agreed to withdraw its troops from Gaza to the demarcation line.

The deal was intended to give Israel temporary control of the area behind the Yellow Line – equivalent to 53% of the Gaza Strip. However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently said that more than 60 percent of the IDF is under control. In May, he officially announced that his “guidance” should be moved to 70%.

Hamas has accused Israel of moving the yellow line westward, violating an October ceasefire. A senior Israeli government official said Israel rejected Hamas’s claim. He told the BBC: “The IDF deployment and security lines are measures to protect Israeli citizens and prevent Hamas from rebuilding its terror army. Israel will continue to act against any ceasefire violations.”

The Israeli army initially marked the yellow line with concrete blocks, before Moving some pointers further to Gaza. But Israel has now built up a network of blockades that began shortly after the cease-fire was lifted. The barriers now stretch over 42 km (26 mi) and cover 85% of Israel’s Yellow Line, the longest section of which is already 13.8 km (8.5 mi).

Experts told the BBC that the land works Israel plans to hold for a long time. In some areas, the ground defense moves the “border” — the yellow line — deeper into Gaza, adding a deadly no-go zone for Gazans.

One section near Al-Mawasi camp is more than 1.5 kilometers from where the yellow line changes. Another unit in Khan Younis sits over 500m.