This year marked the 50th anniversary of Land Day in colonised Palestine. On 30th March 1976, Israeli forces killed 6 Palestinians protesting against colonial land grab in the Galilee. Fifty years later, the international community shows no recognition of land day and remains passively, purportedly opposed, to Israel’s colonial expansion and territorial theft.

According to the Colonisation and Wall Resistance Commission, Israel has designated more than 70 per cent of Area C as state land, nature reserves and military training zones. Fifteen per cent of the occupied West Bank territory has been declared state land.

While the occupied West Bank so far remains synonymous with Israel’s colonial land grab, Gaza must be remembered in the context of ongoing colonial expansion. On 30 March 2018, the Great March of Return sparked international attention as Palestinians embarked on peaceful demonstrations asserting their right of return through various community-organised activities. The Palestinian people’s demands – their right of return and an end to the illegal blockade, were met with sniper fire from Israel. Within a year of the regular protests, Israel killed 266 Palestinians and injured almost 30,000. The world watched as Israel shot at Palestinian civilians. Diplomats engaged in rhetoric and let the bullets fly. Five years later in 2023, diplomats watched Israel’s genocide in action, and supported Israel’s security narrative until it was time to fall back on the humanitarian paradigm.

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By May 2025, Israel declared 70 percent of Gaza as no-go zones. The so-called Yellow Line marked Israel’s permanent presence in Gaza until Hamas is disarmed, with 58 percent of the territory under military occupation as of January 2026 and used as a firing zone to kill Palestinians – over 200 so far. The Yellow Line is now a site for outposts and its borders are expanding further into Gaza, thus forcibly displacing more Palestinians while taking up additional territory. There is also no plan for dismantling or withdrawal.

The Yellow Line is now a site for outposts and its borders are expanding further into Gaza, thus forcibly displacing more Palestinians while taking up additional territory. There is also no plan for dismantling or withdrawal.

The Yellow Line is now a site for outposts and its borders are expanding further into Gaza, thus forcibly displacing more Palestinians while taking up additional territory. There is also no plan for dismantling or withdrawal.

In the occupied West Bank, Israel confiscated much of Palestinians’ agricultural territory by claiming it was not being used. In Gaza, genocide and forced displacement are creating similar conditions for permanent military occupation and subsequent colonisation. The international community’s focus on the occupied West Bank, albeit futile, does not extend to Gaza, which is constructed in the imagination in terms of starvation and security narratives.

Land loss in Gaza is barely registered by the international community, yet it is Israel’s colonial expansion that exacerbates the humanitarian conditions for Palestinians. Without homes, with most of the 361 square kilometres of land occupied by the Israeli military, how are Palestinians expected to survive in Gaza? Yet even with this basic realisation, there is no political will within the international community to see land as intrinsic to Palestinian survival. Or to the humanitarian paradigm, ironically. Without access to land, Palestinians will be killed and so will the humanitarian paradigm. The interim measure supposed to being relief is just another mechanism in the colonial process.

Land day deserves much more political attention. But the world is too engrossed in helping Israel maintain and expand its colonial presence in Palestine.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.

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