UN Human Rights Office Says Israeli Push Past 'Yellow Line' Is Displacing More Gazans a Year Into Ceasefire

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said in a statement issued Friday, Oct. 30, that Israeli forces are pushing the boundary of their deployment area deeper into Gaza and forcing Palestinians into an ever-smaller share of the territory.

The boundary is the "yellow line," the demarcation set under the ceasefire that took effect Oct. 11, 2025. Over the past two weeks, OHCHR documented Israeli deployment areas moving west in Al Shujaiyeh in Gaza City, and in eastern Al Bureij, eastern Deir Al-Balah and eastern Al Maghazi in central Gaza.

What the UN office documented

In Al Shujaiyeh, OHCHR said at least two Israeli attacks were reported on displacement camps. Forces also reportedly used explosive robots to detonate the few buildings still standing.

On Oct. 25, the office said it received reports that an Israeli drone dropped munitions on tents sheltering displaced families at the Al Shujaiyeh junction near the yellow line. The resulting fire burned for five hours. Gaza's Ministry of Public Works and Housing said 200 families, 800 people, were displaced, mostly women, children and older people.

OHCHR said Israel has stated that it aims to expand its military deployment to 70 percent of Gaza's territory. It also said the displacement is worsened by Israeli restrictions on shelter-related humanitarian aid.

The office said Israeli forces "appear to treat the yellow line as a kill zone," blocking Palestinians from returning to what is left of their homes on the far side. That is OHCHR's characterization, not an established finding.

"The nightmare of displacement in Gaza is both acute and chronic," said Ajith Sunghay, head of the UN Human Rights Office in the occupied Palestinian territory. "Those displaced before the announcement of a ceasefire have little to no prospect of return to the areas they fled, most of which are inaccessible because they fall beyond the so-called yellow line."

He added: "This is the fourth year of displacement for most Palestinians in Gaza, the fourth winter in tents too flimsy to withstand the rain, and they are still under fire through it all. Let this be the last."

Legal claim and casualty figures

OHCHR said that as an occupying power, Israel must stop the forcible transfer of Palestinians within Gaza. It called that a war crime that may also amount to a crime against humanity. It also said Israel must facilitate safe return to the areas people fled.

Gaza's Ministry of Health says at least 1,574 people have been killed and 5,687 wounded in Israeli attacks since the ceasefire began. Its cumulative count since October 2023 is at least 74,570 killed and 175,808 wounded. Those are the ministry's numbers, and the UN statement leans on them.

The ceasefire has not stopped the killing. A truce that leaves more than 1,500 dead in a year is a truce in name for the people living along that line.

The dispute over the larger accusations

The displacement story sits inside a harder fight over how to characterize the war. In September 2025, the UN-backed Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory released a report concluding that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza. Israel rejected the findings, and Israeli officials have called a related UN report "political blood libel."

This month, commissioner Chris Sidoti was asked in an interview with JNS whether the commission had independently established that the rest of those killed were civilians. The commission's report had cited a Guardian article saying 83 percent of Gazans killed were civilians. "No, we didn't because we don't have that information," Sidoti said. "We literally do not know, nor does anybody else know, including the IDF, how many militants were there."

Sidoti's remark addresses the civilian-share figure. It does not address the commission's separate findings on intent.

Gaza's Health Ministry also released 2025 mortality data. It registered 24,650 deaths that year, 70.1 percent of them (17,286) attributed to direct targeting in the war. It reported 50,227 live births. Births exceeded registered deaths by roughly 25,600, though the figures say nothing about people who left the territory.

The West Bank

On Oct. 27 in Cairo, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the West Bank faces "an increasingly coercive environment, with the specter of ethnic cleansing looming ever larger." He cited settlement expansion, evictions and surging settler violence.

Hebron's municipality says 3,189 people have been displaced during an Israeli siege and raids on the city. The operation followed a Friday attack in which two Palestinian gunmen killed two Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint near the city, according to the municipality statement. The gunmen were killed in a shootout. Israeli forces then entered the neighborhood where the attackers lived and ordered residents to leave their homes.

What comes next

The open question is how far the yellow line moves. Israel's stated 70 percent target, set against OHCHR's two-week record of westward shifts, leaves the displaced population with less ground each time. OHCHR is pressing Israel to stop the transfers and ease shelter aid restrictions as winter sets in. Israel has given no timeline for halting the expansion.