00:00This road ends at the so-called Yellow Line, a demarcation line separating Israeli-occupied
00:06areas of Gaza from the rest of the territory.
00:09Even filming here is dangerous.
00:12Rania Abufoul was displaced and now lives with her two young children in a bombed-out
00:17building nearby.
00:20When the ceasefire started in October, her husband Muaz, a veterinarian, was killed trying
00:26to reach their former home, unknowingly crossing the then newly created Yellow Line.
00:32Rania says maps at the time did not show that the house lay beyond the line.
00:38Relatives last saw him shortly before hearing explosions.
00:44For nine days we were asking around.
00:46We posted appeals online for anyone who might have seen him.
00:49No one had seen him, except a relative who told him it was dangerous at the time.
00:54Exactly nine days later, we received news from someone who said he had pulled him out.
01:03The so-called Yellow Line is a demarcation boundary drawn under the US-brokered ceasefire agreement
01:09in October 2025.
01:12Talks on the second phase of the deal have since stalled, with Hamas's refusal to disarm
01:18a major obstacle.
01:20The line splits Gaza from north to south, with Israel controlling the eastern part and Hamas,
01:26a designated terrorist group, largely controlling the rest.
01:32Rania says she has not been able to recover her husband's body.
01:37For Palestinians it is a deadly and shifting no-go area.
01:41In some areas the Israeli military marked it with yellow cement blocks, in others it remains
01:48invisible.
01:51We hope they will withdraw, but I lose hope.
01:54God willing they withdraw and life returns to normal.
01:57I more than anyone want them to withdraw so we can go to the area and be sure.
02:01We want to confirm if Muath is actually buried there.
02:04If he is there, to look for any trace of him, I still have hope he might be alive.
02:13Rather than withdrawing, the Israeli military is deepening its hold on the territory.
02:19Recently it introduced a so-called Orange Line, an unmarked restricted area with shifting
02:25boundaries.
02:26Last week Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israeli forces are now holding 60% of
02:33Gaza's territory.
02:35In the Israeli-occupied area, all that remains are piles of rubble, the remnants of what were
02:41once people's homes.
02:43This used to be part of Shezhaiya, a vibrant neighborhood of Gaza City.
02:48It is where Somaya al-Badniji used to live.
02:52She was displaced early in the war.
02:55More than 30 members of her extended family, including her husband, were killed, she says.
03:00Then, last August, her 14-year-old son was also killed in an Israeli airstrike.
03:08She says he had been on his way to collect some belongings from his great-grandfather's
03:12house in Shezhaiya.
03:16Losing my son affected me deeply.
03:20There is no place I go where I don't see him.
03:27She now lives in a tent in central Gaza City, struggling to hold together what remains of
03:33her family and life.
03:35God willing, we hope to return.
03:37In every previous war, this has made it difficult for us to return to our area.
03:41In 2014 we were destroyed, as well as in 2008 and in 2022, in all these wars we were targeted.
03:48Our home is closest to the border with Israel and is always targeted, meaning there is destruction
03:53in every war.
03:57Like Rania, Somaya fears she may never be able to return home and that the boundary could
04:03harden into a de facto border, cementing Israel's partial occupation and reshaping Gaza's territory.
04:15I'd like honored to go there.
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