Ansam al-Kitaa
The New Arab / July 27, 2026
For families living near Gaza’s Yellow Line, every night brings the same terrifying question: will they survive until morning or face another attack ?
Mai Murshid was buying household essentials when a quadcopter appeared above her.
The 38-year-old mother of four ran towards the nearest place of cover, a movement she has become accustomed to making as she carries out daily tasks near Gaza’s ‘Yellow Line‘.
Demarcated as part of the US-brokered ceasefire agreement in October 2025, the Yellow Line marks the boundary between areas under Israeli control and the remaining Palestinian-held parts of Gaza.
But since then, Israeli occupation forces have continued expanding the line deeper into the Strip, reinforcing sections with military infrastructure and further reducing the land available to Gaza’s civilian population.
For residents living near the line, even ordinary activities have become dangerous. Mai said that a month earlier, a neighbour’s child was standing at a window when a bullet struck him near the left eye.
The incident was a reminder of the risks facing families living close to the boundary.
Each night, residents hear gunfire and shelling, forcing them to search for somewhere to shelter, often inside damaged buildings or tents that offer little protection.
Parents try to reassure their children, while families wait to see whether another night will bring further displacement.
“I no longer have the option of staying or leaving,” Mai told The New Arab. “The lack of available places forces us to remain despite the danger.”
After repeated displacement since the genocide began in October 2023, many residents say they have nowhere left to go as the areas still accessible to civilians continue to shrink.
The remaining areas available to Gaza’s population are increasingly made up of destroyed homes and unsafe shelters. Families living in tents are particularly exposed, with little protection from shelling and gunfire.
While families living near the Yellow Line focus on surviving each day, discussions over Gaza’s political future continue outside the Strip.
Regional mediators and Palestinian factions remain divided over who will administer Gaza after the war, even as Israeli occupation operations and territorial expansion continue.
Across the border in Egypt, the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG), a Cairo-based transitional body of Palestinian technocrats, has been preparing plans to administer the Strip.
But for Palestinians living near the Yellow Line, the announcement felt distant from their daily reality.
News about the incoming technocratic body competed with the sound of drones overhead and ongoing violence.
‘Judgement Day’
For Mai, the possibility of safety has remained out of reach.
She has been displaced more than 15 times since the war began, after losing her home in Tel al-Hawa during the early stages of the genocide.
She now lives temporarily in Al-Tuffah, east of Gaza City, close to the Yellow Line.
Like many residents living there, Mai believes the Yellow Line is part of a wider effort by Israel to force Palestinians out of the area entirely.
“The Israeli occupation wants us to abandon the area and leave,” she said. “They know we’re civilians and pose no threat, yet they keep shooting all day.”
The fear is particularly intense when it comes to her children.
“I’m terrified whenever they go to school or anywhere else,” she said. “I fear a stray bullet will strike one of them.”
Ultimately, for Mai, the nights have become defined by bombardment and gunfire, with each one feeling like “Judgement Day” due to the intensity of the attacks; she said areas near the Yellow Line “haven’t seen a single night of safety or peace.”
No escape
For Jalal Arafat, the fear surrounding the Yellow Line has also become part of everyday life.
Jalal (53) is a farmer and father of nine. He spends his nights 100 metres from the line, listening for gunfire rather than waiting for the sunrise.
Displaced more than 10 times since Israel’s genocide began, he told The New Arab that what is happening is “not merely military operations, but a systematic plan to displace the population of the Gaza Strip.”
Jalal believes Israeli control now stretches across much of Gaza, leaving civilians confined to an ever-smaller area.
Each military advance, he said, pushes families into increasingly overcrowded neighbourhoods where damaged homes and makeshift shelters have become the only places left to live.
Jalal now lives in eastern Al-Tuffah after his home in Al-Zaytoun was destroyed. His family’s current shelter is between 100 and 150 metres from the line, leaving them close to the danger every day.
He described the previous night as terrifying. Under heavy gunfire and continued shelling, the Israeli army moved in. Above them, quadcopters fired towards homes and tents.
Whenever shooting begins, Jalal said, the family’s immediate priority is finding somewhere to hide before someone is injured.
With his home destroyed, Jalal had nowhere else to go except his daughter’s apartment.
“We stayed because we simply had nowhere else to go,” he said.
That being said, the impact on his children has been severe.
“It was a brutal night for both children and adults,” he said. “We keep asking ourselves whether we would live to see the morning. Every night feels like it could be our last.”
Jalal also added that his experience reflects the reality facing many families living close to the Yellow Line. Each Israeli occupation force’s advance brings another wave of displacement, but many people no longer have anywhere to move.
“People are forced to flee again and again,” he said. “But where can they go? There are no places left.”
Residents say the amount of habitable land continues to shrink as Israeli-controlled areas expand, leaving few places untouched by destruction.
With overcrowded displacement camps, soaring transport costs and little shelter available, many families say remaining near the Yellow Line feels no more dangerous than fleeing elsewhere.
The situation has also shaped how residents view political developments outside Gaza. Residents have heard repeated announcements about plans for new governance arrangements in Gaza.
But for many living near the Yellow Line, those political discussions feel detached from daily life, where drones, shelling and displacement continue.
Days earlier, people in Gaza, where ongoing internet and electricity cuts make it difficult for information to spread, heard that Hamas’ emergency government had been handed over to another body, an interim government made up of independent Palestinian professionals.
But on the ground, residents saw little change. The bombing continued.
“We can’t build our hopes on news that has no impact on reality,” Jalal said. “The technocratic committee hasn’t even entered Gaza yet, conditions haven’t changed, and we continue to live with the same fear every night.”
Fear of the unknown
Bashir Atta (22) is also living close to the Yellow Line, where the sound of gunfire has become part of daily life.
Bashir lives with his family of seven a short distance from the line. He told The New Arab that being displaced more than 12 times since the genocide began has left the family exhausted, both psychologically and financially, with nowhere else to go.
Like other residents in the area, Bashir said each Israeli advance brings renewed fear. When shooting starts, his family moves to the western-facing rooms of their home, which offer only limited protection from the danger coming from the Israeli-controlled east.
For Bashir, the greatest fear is not only the shelling but the possibility that Israeli forces could enter the area.
“What scares me most is that they will advance and arrest someone from my family,” he said. “That fear never leaves us.”
Despite the risks, Bashir has stayed because there is nowhere else for him to go, not because he feels safe.
He is also sceptical about the role of the technocratic committee and does not believe the Israeli forces will allow it to govern, as he believes the current situation serves the occupation’s interests.
‘A manoeuvre, not a retreat’
The decision by Hamas to dissolve its emergency government does not necessarily mean the group is giving up control of Gaza, political analyst Reham Odeh told The New Arab.
Instead, she described it as a political manoeuvre in response to changing military and political circumstances, rather than a genuine transfer of power to the technocratic committee that mediators have spent months trying to establish.
According to Reham, the move could be intended to prevent a situation where members of the committee responsible for administering Gaza are deployed to areas on the western, Palestinian-controlled side of the Yellow Line.
She said this could encourage residents to move there, potentially separating Gaza’s population from Hamas, which the group wants to avoid.
Reham said Hamas continues to oversee security on the ground in Gaza. This shows mediators that while the group may be prepared to step back from governing the Strip, it does not want to create a security vacuum or allow widespread disorder.
As Israeli forces continue expanding the Yellow Line and consolidating control over more territory, Reham warned that the prospect of further ground operations could trigger another wave of displacement.
With humanitarian aid still severely restricted and safe shelter increasingly scarce, she said civilians would once again bear the heaviest burden of any renewed offensive.
For Bashir, the expansion of the Yellow Line is not a political discussion. It affects his family every night.
“There’s no stability anymore,” he said. “You live without feeling secure all the time. Every night we wonder what might happen.”
Ansam al-Kitaa is a freelance journalist based in Gaza
