Dozens of families fled Al-Tuffah neighborhood in eastern Gaza City Monday after Israeli forces advanced and shifted the “yellow line” barriers toward Salah Al-Din Street, expanding the area under military control to include new residential zones.
Several Gaza residents told Al Manassa that the early hours of Monday morning saw heavy, indiscriminate gunfire, forcing them to take shelter inside their homes for hours before Israeli tanks and cranes advanced.
The occupation forces expanded their control zones by shifting the yellow-colored concrete barriers, a de facto demarcation line established around the areas the Israeli army withdrew to under the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire that came into effect in October 2025, deeper into Gaza City toward Salah Al-Din Street, the main north–south artery, bringing additional residential areas under military control.
“Suddenly, the army opened fire heavily, and we were forced to throw ourselves to the ground with our children and women,” said Mahmoud Al-Shawa, a resident of the Al-Sanafour area in the Al-Tuffah neighborhood. “Without any prior warning, we discovered after the vehicles withdrew that our homes, which used to be near the yellow line, were now inside it and classified as army control zones,” he told Al Manassa.
Meanwhile, Hafez Al-Ghur decided to move his family further west after discovering that his home fell within the newly established perimeter line, amid daily gunfire near the house. “The barriers used to be over 400 meters from us,” Al-Ghur said. “Today we are in danger, and I want to protect my grandchildren’s lives.”
Residents of western Gaza load their belongings onto trucks, preparing for another displacement, June 15, 2026The wave of displacement also included Gaza resident Mohsen Kharoub, who packed up and headed toward the shore in the far west, marking his eleventh displacement in just two and a half years, a repeated uprooting faced by many families in the Strip in recent years.
“We endured danger in our homes to avoid living on the street,” Kharoub told Al Manassa. “But now that the house is inside an active operations zone, we have no choice but to save ourselves.”
Despite the wave of displacement, some residents whose properties now fall within the yellow line are refusing to leave. Among them is Mahmoud Al-Shawa: “Where are we supposed to go?” he asked. “Everywhere is dangerous. Even if you escape the bullets, you are met by the rodents and insects infesting the streets. Dying at home is easier.”
The occupation army’s maneuvers are part of a gradual seizure of land inhabited by about two million Palestinians, particularly along Salah Al-Din Street’s western corridor.
Over the past month, these shrinking operations have focused on Netzarim and east Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza, as well as eastern and central Khan Younis in the south, alongside expanded activity by militias formed by the occupation army within its control zones.
These militias increased their incursions into the Al-Bureij and Al-Maghazi refugee camps in central Gaza, killing and arresting a number of citizens, two witness journalists revealed to Al Manassa.
Since the October 2025 ceasefire agreement, the occupation army controlled more than 50% of the Gaza Strip’s total area. The recent moves in the Al-Tuffah neighborhood, among others, have raised the proportion of land under Israeli military control to more than 65%, further squeezing the overcrowded residential blocks sheltering displaced civilians in the western areas.
