How Israel is using militias and concrete blocks to seize what remains of Gaza
The ‘Yellow Line’ cutting Gaza on half in November 2025
Tareq S. Hajjaj reports in Mondoweiss on 19 May 2026:
On the morning of May 13, residents near al-Hikma Mosque in eastern Deir al-Balah began receiving phone calls from someone claiming to be “Captain Abu Omar,” an Israeli army officer, ordering them to evacuate their homes and move more than 200 meters west of the mosque. He gave them less than one week to leave.
That same afternoon, armed fighters loyal to Shawqi Abu Nuseira, a militia leader in Gaza who residents say is armed and protected by the Israeli military, stormed the same neighborhoods the army had warned hours earlier. According to residents, they delivered the same message, telling them to evacuate.
The scene in Deir al-Balah is part of a broader pattern unfolding across Gaza. Since the beginning of May, Israeli forces have been pushing the yellow concrete blocks that demarcate the so-called “Yellow Line” deeper into areas of the Strip nominally under Hamas control. According to Reuters, the line has seized an additional 11% of Gaza’s territory, bringing the total area under Israeli military control to 65%. At the start of the ceasefire in October 2025, Israel controlled 53% of the Strip, an arrangement that was supposed to be temporary and lead to a gradual Israeli withdrawal from the enclave. The new expansion has come to be known as the “orange line,” confining over 2.2 million Palestinians to what remains of Gaza.
Abu Nuseira, according to residents in central Gaza and Khan Younis, was once a longtime militant with the Palestinian Authority’s security forces in Gaza, with a long history of fighting against Israel. He lost a son in the early weeks of the 2023 war, after which he began to more aggressively move against Hamas. He and his militia now operate from area under Israeli control, and they are widely regarded in Gaza as collaborators who receive arms and logistical support from Israel.