Gaza partition plan emerges as ceasefire violations continue

GAZA CITY, Palestine: The charred remains of a vehicle in Gaza City's Rimal neighbourhood stand as testament to the fragility of a ceasefire that was meant to bring respite to Palestinians after two years of devastating conflict. An Israeli airstrike on Saturday killed at least four people and wounded several others, local health authorities confirmed, marking another violation of the October 10 truce that has failed to halt the violence completely.

Witnesses described how the attack set the vehicle ablaze in the densely populated area, with dozens rushing to extinguish the fire and rescue victims. The Israeli military said it was checking the report, while Palestinian health authorities reported that Israeli forces have killed 316 people in strikes on Gaza since the truce began.

This latest incident unfolds against the backdrop of a more insidious development: the solidification of Gaza's partition into what officials term "green zones" under Israeli army control and "red zones" where Palestinians remain displaced and contained. The invisible "yellow line" separating these areas has become a new frontier in the conflict, with the United States administration signalling that reconstruction will be limited to the Israeli-controlled zones.

The Trump administration and Israeli allies have been working on plans for "alternative safe communities" that critics argue would cement a deadly fragmentation of Gaza. According to Jonathan Whittall, a former United Nations official who coordinated humanitarian operations in Palestine, the first such community is slated for Rafah in southern Gaza, with ten more planned along the yellow line.

"The purpose of creating these camps is not to provide humanitarian relief but to create zones of managed dispossession where Palestinians would be screened and vetted to enter in order to receive basic services, but would be explicitly barred from returning to the off-limits and blockaded 'red zone'," Whittall wrote in an analysis for Al Jazeera.

The United Nations Security Council recently voted to legitimise the plan by endorsing a board to manage Gaza and an international stabilisation force to provide security. However, Hamas has rejected the resolution, arguing its provisions were not the outcome of a negotiated agreement.

Palestinian health authorities report that Israeli forces have killed 316 people in strikes on Gaza since the truce began, while Israel says three of its soldiers have been killed and it has attacked scores of fighters during the same period. Both sides continue to trade blame for truce violations.

Humanitarian organisations capable of saving lives are being squeezed out by an Israeli registration process designed to stifle criticism and vet staff for compliance, according to aid groups. The model of contained communities echoes colonial strategies from Malaya in the 1950s to Vietnam in the 1960s and Rhodesia in the 1970s, where civilian populations were coerced into camps in exchange for aid.

The International Court of Justice has previously ruled against Israeli settlement policies in occupied Palestinian territory, yet the UNSC-endorsed plan appears to contravene these rulings. As the world watches what some hail as an end to the war, the partition of Gaza threatens to create permanent zones of displacement and control, raising questions about the future of Palestinian sovereignty and the application of international law in the conflict.

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