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Source: https://www.ynetnews.com/opinions-analysis/article/bjndpk00fbe
Israel's Yellow Line in Gaza Corrects Its Strategic Depth Deficit
(Ynet News) Amine Ayoub - The Yellow Line in Gaza separating the areas controlled by the IDF and Hamas is not a political border designed for annexation; it is an operational necessity designed for sanitation. It represents the shift from a failed doctrine of "containment." For two decades, the assumption was that a high-tech fence on the 1967 armistice line, combined with economic inducements, would contain the threat. Oct. 7 demonstrated the catastrophic failure of that approach. We learned that allowing a terror state to metastasize just meters from civilian communities creates an intolerable risk. The Yellow Line corrects this strategic depth deficit. It acknowledges that security cannot be maintained from the outside looking in; it requires internal lines of control that prevent the adversary from achieving strategic mass. If the IDF withdraws its forward positions today, there is no "revitalized" Palestinian Authority capable of stepping into the breach. The only organized force with the logistical capacity and the will to seize control is the remnant of the Hamas battalions, currently melting into the civilian population. The diplomatic obsession with the "Day After" often ignores the reality of the "Day Present." Stabilization is impossible without security, and security in a post-conflict zone requires area denial. To demand the dismantling of the Yellow Line is to demand that Israel voluntarily surrender its leverage and its security for a return to the status quo ante. From a strictly military standpoint, removing this crucial "firebreak" before the total capitulation of Hamas would be operational malpractice. If the international community wants the line to fade, they should stop pressuring Israel to withdraw and start pressuring Hamas to surrender. The writer, a fellow at the Middle East Forum, is based in Morocco.