IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said on Sunday that the Gaza ceasefire line known as the “Yellow Line,” demarcating the Israeli military withdrawal, is “a new border line.”
“We have operational control over extensive parts of the Gaza Strip, and we will remain on those defense lines,” Zamir said during a tour of Gaza, according to remarks provided by the IDF.
“The Yellow Line is a new border line—serving as a forward defensive line for our communities and a line of operational activity.”
Israel controls about 53 percent of Gaza under the first phase of U.S. President Donald Trump’s ceasefire plan.
The IDF chief reiterated the Israeli government’s position that Hamas will not be allowed to reestablish itself and, after the failure of Oct. 7, 2023, is preparing for future surprise attack scenarios.
He noted that Israel was waiting for the return of the final deceased hostage.
“The overwhelming majority of our hostages have returned, but our mission will not be complete until the last fallen hostage, Master Sgt. Ran Gvili, is brought home,” Zamir said.
Israel’s Hostages and Missing Families Forum on Sunday called on the Israeli government and mediators to halt progress on Trump’s peace plan until Gvili’s remains are returned.
Responding to reports that the White House is pushing to declare the start of the truce’s second stage, the organization stated on X, “We cannot move to the next phase before Ran Gvili returns home.”
The recovery of 27 of 28 hostage bodies proves that Hamas “knows the location of every hostage and is using this information as a bargaining chip and to deceive the entire world,” the statement continued.
The NGO noted that the Palestinian terror organization had pledged to return the remains of all captives at once on Oct. 13.
Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) head David Zini visited Cairo last week, where he reportedly received information suggesting that Gvili, an officer in the Israel Police’s elite Special Patrol Unit (Yasam), was possibly buried in Gaza City.
Hamas-led search efforts to recover Gvili’s remains were said to have resumed on Sunday morning in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighborhood.
Trump’s plan states that Palestinian terror groups “agree to not have any role in the governance of Gaza, directly, indirectly, or in any form,” and that “all military, terror, and offensive infrastructure, including tunnels and weapon production facilities, will be destroyed and not rebuilt.”
However, Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal on Saturday rejected Trump’s demand that the group disarm, declaring that “protecting the resistance project and its weapons is the right of our people to defend themselves.
“The resistance and its weapons are the ummah’s [Islamic nation] honor and pride,” Mashaal told an anti-Israel summit in Turkey, adding: “A thousand statements are not worth a single projectile of iron.”
