SHUJA’IYYA, Gaza Strip — Silence is the most startling sound in this town.

A month ago this region was home to some of the fiercest fighting in the two-year war in the Gaza Strip . But when NBC News visited an Israeli military outpost on Wednesday, the area appeared completely leveled and entirely devoid of people.

The soldiers manning the outpost are overseeing a delicate aspect of the now three-week-old ceasefire: the “yellow line,” a boundary of yellow blocks and flags laid out by the Israel Defense Forces that now mark the border between them and Hamas-controlled Gaza.

“Our job is to protect the lines, to make sure that Hamas doesn’t try and break those lines to carry out attacks against our troops, against Israeli civilians,” said IDF spokesperson, Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani .

See Full Page