IDF carried out secret withdrawal from parts of Gaza – report

Despite claims by Israeli leaders to the contrary, the IDF has reportedly withdrawn from large swaths of the Gaza Strip, returning to the October 2025 ceasefire line.

By World Israel News Staff

Israel has quietly withdrawn troops in Gaza from an expanded security zone established in recent months and returned to the original boundary set under last year’s ceasefire agreement, according to Israeli officials cited Tuesday, in an apparent concession to President Donald Trump that has not been publicly acknowledged by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

David Makovsky, director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy’s Project on the Middle East Peace Process, said Israeli forces had retreated from the so-called Orange Line to the original Yellow Line, reducing the portion of Gaza under Israeli control from more than 60% to approximately 53%.

“Israeli sources say that, in compliance with President Trump’s wishes, Israel has quietly withdrawn in recent weeks from the so-called Orange Line in Gaza to the original Yellow Line stipulated in last October’s ceasefire deal,” Makovsky wrote Tuesday.

The reported withdrawal would amount to a significant reversal of Israel’s policy over the past several months, during which the IDF progressively pushed its positions westward beyond the ceasefire line in an effort to reduce the territory available to Hamas.

“Under that deal, Israel controls 53% of Gaza,” Makovsky wrote. “But in an effort to limit Hamas’s room to maneuver, Israel had subsequently extended its control to more than 60%, creating what became known as the Orange Line.”

Israel Hayom reported in May that the new Orange Line added approximately 34 square kilometers — around 11% of the Gaza Strip — to the territory under effective Israeli control.

At the time, a senior Western diplomat said the expansion had been carried out with the knowledge and approval of the US-backed Board of Peace after Hamas failed to meet deadlines for disarmament.

“No one fell asleep at the wheel here,” the Western official said at the time. “Further steps will be taken as long as Hamas continues to violate the understandings.”

The apparent reversal comes as the Trump administration sharply increases pressure on Israel to advance the next stage of its Gaza plan.

Trump on Monday publicly criticized continued Israeli attacks in the enclave, saying Israel “should not be striking in Gaza” and expressing confidence that Hamas would ultimately surrender its weapons.

The statement came while Trump envoy Jared Kushner was in Jerusalem for extended talks with Netanyahu over Hamas’s disarmament and future Israeli troop deployments.

Makovsky suggested Netanyahu has sought to publicly emphasize his disagreements with Washington while quietly complying with some of Trump’s demands.

“With Israel now in an election season, Netanyahu has sought to emphasize points of difference with Trump over Gaza to placate his political base,” Makovsky wrote, noting that Netanyahu has repeatedly insisted publicly that Israel will not withdraw until Hamas fully disarms.

Makovsky also said Netanyahu has not publicly acknowledged an agreement to limit Israeli attacks west of the Yellow Line.

“Nor has Netanyahu publicly acknowledged his willingness — in compliance with Trump’s wishes — to refrain from strikes against Hamas beyond the Yellow Line absent an imminent threat, apparently believing such restraint would be politically unpopular,” he wrote.

Israeli journalist Ariel Kahana separately reported that Israel had returned from the Orange Line to the Yellow Line, providing a second Israeli account of the change in deployment.

The reported withdrawal follows signs Monday night that the IDF had received new orders restricting further territorial expansion inside Gaza.

Kan News reported that troops were formally instructed not to continue pushing the Yellow Line westward. Soldiers were also ordered to document Hamas ceasefire violations and were authorized to use personal mobile phones when necessary to record them.

The directive came shortly after Netanyahu held roughly four hours of talks with Kushner and Board of Peace chief Nickolay Mladenov.

The meeting produced no public Israeli commitment to implement the full US roadmap, but Netanyahu’s office described the talks as “deep and constructive.”

Israel and the Board of Peace agreed to establish working groups dealing with Hamas’s disarmament and with public health conditions in Gaza.

Both sides also agreed that Gaza’s demilitarization “should be prompt and completed before any reconstruction,” according to Netanyahu’s office. A Board of Peace official said the requirement would encompass “every weapon, light and heavy, and every tunnel.”

“The Israelis are going to give this a chance. Now it’s up to Hamas to show if it truly intends to comply,” a Board of Peace official said following the talks.

The reported Israeli pullback is particularly notable because Israeli officials had publicly rejected such a move only weeks earlier.

On August 3, an Israeli official said, “Israel will not withdraw from the current line in the Gaza Strip,” while pledging that the IDF would “continue to eliminate any threats to our citizens and our soldiers.”

Israel had expanded its control substantially since the October 2025 ceasefire. Under the original agreement, the Yellow Line initially left approximately 53% of Gaza under Israeli military control.

Israeli forces subsequently shifted the boundary westward in several areas as they searched for tunnels and sought to reduce Hamas’s freedom of movement.

Defense Minister Israel Katz said earlier this month that Israeli control had grown to between 60% and 70% of the Strip.

Independent reporting put the figure at roughly 60% to 64%, with new Israeli positions, earthworks and security zones established beyond the original line.

The territorial issue has become one of the central obstacles to implementing Trump’s latest Gaza initiative.

Hamas has demanded that Israel stop attacks and return to the original Yellow Line before it begins implementing the disarmament provisions.

Israel has insisted on the reverse sequence, arguing that Hamas must surrender its weapons and destroy its tunnel network before Israeli troops make further withdrawals.

Kushner met Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya in Cairo on Sunday before traveling to Israel, in an unusual round of direct contacts aimed at determining whether Hamas is prepared to carry out its disarmament commitments. Egyptian, Qatari and Turkish officials also participated in the talks.