Israel–Palestine border

A ceasefire line

After the 1948 war, the UN mediated armistice agreements between Israel and its neighbours. The one signed with Jordan in Rhodes on 3 April 1949 fixed an armistice demarcation line, later called the “Green Line” after the colour used for it on maps. The agreement said the line was drawn without prejudice to future territorial settlements or boundary lines, or to either party’s claims. In the 1967 war Israeli forces occupied all the territories of mandate Palestine, including the West Bank east of the Green Line.^[1]

The Gaza Strip, about 40 km long and 6–8 km wide, took its shape from the fighting of autumn 1948, and its boundaries were demarcated in the Egyptian–Israeli armistice of 24 February 1949. Israel took it in 1967.^[2]

“…agreed upon by the Parties without prejudice to future territorial settlements or boundary lines or to claims of either Party relating thereto.”^[1]

The barrier

From 2002 Israel built a barrier in and around the West Bank. Israel called it a fence and a temporary measure of self-defence against terrorist attacks, and said it did not amount to annexation. Reviewing the planned route in 2004, the International Court of Justice found that in places it ran close to the Green Line but elsewhere cut up to 22 km east of it, and around Jerusalem lay well beyond it. About 975 km², 16.6% of the West Bank, home to 237,000 Palestinians and some 80% of settlers, would lie between the barrier and the Green Line, where Israeli orders created a “Closed Area” that Palestinian residents needed permits to stay in.^[1]

On 9 July 2004, in an advisory opinion requested by the UN General Assembly, the court found by 14 votes to 1 that the barrier’s construction in occupied territory, and its associated regime, were contrary to international law. It said it could not ignore fears that the route would prejudge the future frontier. The dissenting judge, Thomas Buergenthal, accepted that the barrier raised serious legal questions but said the court lacked the facts, including on Israel’s security concerns, to reach such sweeping findings.^[1][3]

Gaza’s perimeter and the 2024 opinion

Israel withdrew its soldiers and settlers from Gaza in September 2005 but continued to patrol its borders and airspace. After Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007, Israel declared it a hostile entity and in January 2008 sealed its border with the strip completely for a time.^[2][4] Under the October 2025 ceasefire, Israeli forces pulled back to a line inside Gaza that still left them controlling an estimated 53–58% of the strip.^[5]

In July 2024 the ICJ, in a further advisory opinion, found Israel’s continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory unlawful and said it should end as rapidly as possible. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the opinion absurd, saying Jews were not occupiers in their own land.^[6][7]