In Gaza, Israel’s creeping Yellow Line takes Palestinians’ land, and lives

• By Ghada Abdulfattah Special contributor
• Taylor Luck Special correspondent
   
  Feb. 17, 2026

  Why We Wrote This

  The yellow cement blocks demarcating Israeli-held territory in Gaza were supposed to mark a temporary armistice line. But with the ceasefire process stalled, the blocks keep moving deeper into Gaza, making Palestinians feel more closed in, and trapped.

For Palestinian residents of Gaza, a string of concrete yellow boxes now demarcates where Israeli-occupied land begins – a barely visible border that, for Palestinians who cross it, marks the line between life and death.

It also marks a shrinking amount of space in which displaced Gazans can live.

The blocks – some with yellow poles – mark the so-called Yellow Line, which residents say is steadily being moved further west and south by Israeli forces.

A temporary makeshift armistice line, the Yellow Line was to disappear and Israeli forces were to withdraw from Gaza... READ MORE   https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2026/0217/gaza-palestinian-land-israel-yellow-line-border

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In famine-struck Gaza, another burden: An exhausting search for water & In Gaza, military offensive and civilian chaos hinder food aid - CSM Christian Science Monitor

• By Ghada Abdulfattah Special contributor
• Taylor Luck Special correspondent

Amid an intensifying Israeli military offensive and a deadly famine that is deepening daily, Gazans are facing a third crisis: a lack of drinking water.

In what the United Nations has described as a “man-made drought,” Palestinian residents of the Gaza Strip are left chasing down water trucks, washing in seawater, and trekking miles to find enough drops of water to last the day.

It is, they say, an all-consuming crisis.

“This war is not only airstrikes,” Suzan Abu Khaddoura, a displaced mother of four, says as she treks from her sea-side tent to a water vendor. “It is about food. It is about hygiene. It is about water.”

On Tuesday, the Israeli military deepened its operations in the Gaza City neighborhood of Zeitoun – and the number of Palestinians who have died of starvation rose to 303, according to Gaza health authorities, days after U.N. experts declared famine in the strip. But water remained elusive for nearly all Gazans... READ MORE  https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2025/0826/gaza-famine-clean-water 

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• By Taylor Luck Special correspondent
• Ghada Abdulfattah Special contributor

Sept. 24, 2025, 2:25 p.m. ET | Amman and Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip

After a harrowing eight-hour evacuation from Gaza City, Mohammed al-Rai, a father of five, returns to a familiar challenge: the hunt for food.

But he is finding it harder than ever to feed his family, he says.

He does not have enough money to buy food in the market, nor does the local charity kitchen near his new home – a makeshift tent – have enough food for him. He just has to wait and see whether a relative can spare him any leftovers.

Some days, Mr. al-Rai’s children eat; other days, they wait in line for a meal handout that never arrives.

“Today, you may get something, tomorrow, nothing,” Mr. al-Rai says, a few days after fleeing an Israeli army offensive in Gaza City with his family in a truck hastily packed with their last belongings. “Now, the suffering cannot be described.”

As several Western nations moved to recognize a Palestinian state, and as U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres called for the implementation of measures ordered by the International Court of Justice to halt fighting as part of an ongoing genocide case against Israel, Gaza’s residents face an ever-deepening crisis.

Just as the amount of food flowing into Gaza began to increase, stoking hopes of turning back an impending famine, Israeli forces launched an all-out assault on Gaza City. That assault once again disrupted the distribution of lifesaving aid, threatening to plunge the enclave back into starvation.

Displaced Palestinians say it adds a new level of desperation among families accustomed to hardship.

More aid, less access

The contradiction at the heart of Gaza’s hunger crisis is stark.

On paper, aid deliveries are rising; in practice, bombardments, displacement, and collapsing infrastructure mean families still go hungry.... READ MORE https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2025/0924/Gaza-starving-flee-Israel-military

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CSM: In Gaza, Palestinians wonder: Is it worth braving bullets to find food?

• By Ghada Abdulfattah Special contributor
• Taylor Luck Special correspondent

June 13, 2025, 2:18 p.m. ET | Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip; and Amman, Jordan

Efforts to feed desperately hungry Palestinians in Gaza are facing setbacks, peril, and pandemonium.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a controversial U.S.- and Israel-backed venture with alleged links to the Israeli military, says it is making progress in providing meals in the blockaded Gaza Strip since taking over food distribution from the United Nations in late May.

But Gaza residents, who are struggling to find food, describe the distribution process as chaotic. And one Israeli military expert faults Israel’s attempt to manage the complex process at arm’s length.

Why We Wrote This

In Gaza, even the strongest pangs of hunger do not persuade everyone to seek food in the only places they can find it – official hubs run by a U.S.-Israeli group. The fear of fatal gunfire is a major deterrent.

Insecurity stalks the aid effort. Scores of Palestinians in Gaza have allegedly been killed by the Israeli army while collecting aid, and a Hamas attack on Wednesday killed eight GHF workers, the organization said... READ MORE  https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2025/0613/gaza-food-shooting-ghf

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Three weeks ago, in violation of the ceasefire and international humanitarian law, the Israeli government blocked all aid, food, fuel, and shelter from entering Gaza. At the same time, the Israeli government was resisting scheduled talks for the second phase of a more permanent ceasefire agreement. Instead the United States floated a short-term “bridge proposal,”

“Palestinian lives have become so undervalued that reports of 50 children killed barely register... We must speak about it... We must tell the stories.” Ms. Yafa Abu Akar, a Palestinian Journalist in Gaza

People walk by buildings destroyed during the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel, March 20, 2025.  Leo Correa/AP

By Ghada Abdulfattah Special contributor

March 20, 2025, 4:51 p.m. ET | Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip

When Sabah al-Qarra first returned to her home in the Gaza Strip town of Khuzaa seven weeks ago, she was careful not to get too comfortable. There was a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, but she didn’t trust it.

But as the days turned to weeks, Ms. Qarra and her family tacked sheets of nylon over the blown-out glass windows and hauled rubble from the bombed-out rooms. They installed solar panels and, when Ramadan arrived, strung twinkly crescent- and star-shaped lights to celebrate the holy month.

It felt, at last, like life could begin again.

Then the bombs began to fall.

On Tuesday, Israel resumed airstrikes in Gaza, killing 500 people, including 200 children, local authorities said, sending Ms. Qarra and her family fleeing once more. On Thursday, after days of calling on the international community to push Israel back to the negotiation table, Hamas responded in kind, launching rockets into central Israel. Meanwhile, Israel began a new ground offensive in northern Gaza.

The developments spelled an end to the stalled ceasefire negotiations, which had tried the patience of both Israelis’ and Palestinians’ allies. But for Gazans, the resumption of fighting simply laid bare their greatest fear: The world had turned its back.

 “We were let down and left behind” by the international community, says journalist Yafa Abu Akar. “No one cares.”...          READ MORE  https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2025/0320/gaza-ceasefire-israel-airstrikes

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‘Abandoned by everyone,’ Gazans watch the bombs fall

CSM ‘Cold is death.’ For Gazans in flimsy tents, a winter of sorrow and loss.

Hadeel al-Kafarna, who has been living in a tent since the start of the war, holds her 6-week-old son, Yousuf, in her arms in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, Jan. 5, 2025. “Most of the time, we huddle together” for warmth, she says.

By Ghada Abdulfattah Contributor 

Jan. 07, 2025, 4:59 p.m. ET | Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip 

 

December began as a month of joy for Yahya al-Batran and his wife, Nora, when they welcomed twin sons into the world: Jomaa and Ali.

 

“They were small, sweet, and beautiful,” Mr. Batran recalls.

 

The month ended in tragedy. Three weeks later, they buried Jomaa, who died from hypothermia Dec. 29 in their makeshift tent on the Deir al-Balah coast, in central Gaza. His twin, Ali, is fighting for his life in the intensive care unit.

 

Why

A story focused on

Resilience

For tens of thousands of Palestinian families forced from their homes by 15 months of war, the temporary shelters they have constructed are no match for Gaza’s winter winds and rain. Supplies are expensive. Infants are especially vulnerable.

 

“I saw them dying. I cried; I wept. I felt helpless and hopeless,” Ms. Batran says while waiting Sunday for Ali to recover at the ICU at Al Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah. “I am so tired.”

 

After escaping an Israeli siege and shelling in northern Gaza, the family was felled by an unexpected danger: the cold.

 

“Imagine watching your child die in front of you and feeling utterly powerless,” says Mr. Batran from his tent in western Deir al-Balah. “What can I do? Cold is death.”

 

For tens of thousands of displaced Gaza Palestinians living in flimsy, temporary shelters, it has been a winter of sorrow and hardship.

 

Their deteriorating makeshift tents – patchworks of blankets, clothes, cardboard, and whatever materials displaced families can find – are woefully inadequate to confront the winter’s rains and temperatures below 46 degrees Fahrenheit at night.,,, READ MORE  

https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2025/0107/gaza-winter-cold-rain-illness

 

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West Bank village, proudly self-reliant, now faces wartime hostility [from Israel]

 

Farkha's Mayor Mustafa Hammad points to Israeli settlements and outposts he worries may soon cut off the village form its farmland, April 24, 2024

By Taylor Luck Special correspondent

• Fatima AbdulKarim Special contributor

May 24, 2024 | FARKHA, West Bank

While most villages across the beleaguered West Bank lie dormant, Farkha buzzes with activity.

Farmers plant summer vegetables and wheat, blacksmiths weld iron gates, women prepare jarred pickles and jams for sale, and dozens gather in the recently opened cafe.

This Palestinian village, which a year and a half ago was found to be witnessing a revival built on self-sufficiency and an everyone-pitches-in philosophy, is faring better than most amid Israeli settler attacks, military road closures, and a suffocated economy.

Why We Wrote This

A story focused on

Community

Long before the war in Gaza erupted, Monitor reporters covering the West Bank found a remarkable story of self-sufficiency in Farkha, a village frustrated by inattentive local governance. The war has brought new threats, so our reporters returned.

Yet the feel-good vibes and flurry of activity mask a harsher reality: Farkha is under threat.

While its indigenous concept of Al Ouneh – collective philanthropy and communal farming – is keeping it afloat, residents say that this is not enough to shield the village from the closures and a legion of armed and organized far-right settlers.

Residents say that in a war, it takes more than a village.... READ MORE  https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2024/0524/west-bank-farmers-israel-settlers-war

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CSM story by Taylor Luck Special correspondent: Ramadan peace prevails in Jerusalem as all sides keep extremists at bay.

A man and his son walk out from Haram Sharif, the Noble Sanctuary compound, following afternoon prayers on the ninth day of Ramadan, in Jerusalem, March 19, 2024.

Tension is common at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque, a space for worship that can be jolted by extremists. What’s the climate now, during Ramadan, with nearby Gaza inflamed? So far, so good. Our reporter tells why.

JERUSALEM

As war rages in Gaza and violence flares across the West Bank, one of Jerusalem’s most contested holy sites is, for now, a rare oasis of calm.

Amid warnings from governments and Islamic authorities about potential clashes, and concerns about instigators from Israel’s far right and Hamas, visitors observing the second week of Ramadan at Al-Aqsa Mosque, one of Islam’s three holiest sites, are praying, fasting, and celebrating peacefully.

One could almost describe it as normal. Jerusalemites say this is the way it should be.

“We don’t want trouble; we are not looking for violence. All we want is to practice our religion peacefully without restrictions,” says Umm Hazem, a mother of four, as she sat in an Al-Aqsa courtyard, awaiting sunset prayers. 

“When we are given a chance and are not harassed and attacked by Israeli extremists, we choose to be peaceful.”

Jordanian, Palestinian, and Israeli officials are mindful of what happened last year... READ MORE... https://www.csmonitor.com/Daily/2024/20240321?cmpid=ema:bundle:20240321:1176397:img1&sfmc_sub=62874446#1176397