Marty's thoughts

Will Israel fully withdraw?

Gaza is 41 kilometers (25.5 miles) long and 10 kilometers wide, and, after two years of conflict, the Israeli army said it controlled most of the coastal enclave.

The peace agreement sponsored by US President Donald Trump says Israel would not control or annex Gaza, and that Israeli troops should withdraw if Israeli hostages are freed. Reports say Israeli troops have partially withdrawn over the past few days, and the remaining living hostages were released on Monday.

The initial military withdrawal is only up to what is being called “the yellow line,” a boundary within Gaza. At the yellow line, the Israeli military still controls about half of the Strip.

According to the peace agreement, the Israeli military will move back further after other conditions are fulfilled. They’ll go to a “red line” once an ” international stabilization force” has been deployed. Then, once Gaza is under the control of a new transitional authority, they’ll pull back even further. No timeline has been given in the peace agreement, so it is unclear when all that would happen.

That final withdrawal would see Israeli troops move back to policing the buffer zone between Israel and Gaza that has been there since the early 21st century. Israel argues that such a buffer zone is necessary for its security and has expanded it over two decades.

The buffer used to be 300 meters (1,000 feet) from the border, but, in the January 2025 ceasefire agreement, the zone was defined as “at a depth of 700 to 1,100 meters into Gaza,” the not-for-profit Israeli organization Gisha, which advocates for Palestinian freedom of movement, reported in March.

That’s about 17% of the Gaza Strip and would also mean the permanent destruction of communities and no access to agricultural land, according to Gisha.