What now for the Palestinians?

By Nicolas Pelham, Middle East correspondent, The Economist

No sooner had Israel completed its partial withdrawal from Gaza, as set out in the Trump Plan, than it began slicing the strip in two. On October 9th Israeli engineers laid knee-high yellow saddle-stones. Weeks later they added chunky yellow blocks. A concrete wall could follow. The new “yellow” line would define a small Palestinian enclave within a larger Israeli-occupied zone. Israel is meant to withdraw fully once Hamas disarms and an international stabilisation force takes over. Neither looks imminent. Gaza’s partition may therefore become indefinite.