war zone

noun

(during wartime) a combat area in which the rights of neutrals are suspended, as such an area on the high seas, where ships flying a neutral flag are subject to attack.

Origin of war zone

First recorded in 1915–20

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

In past war-zone visits by politicians, my experience had been just the opposite.
The Book America Needs to Read Right Now
John Kael Weston
January 20, 2014
The Marines discussed their war-zone tours and how they had been wounded.
Home on the Fourth of July: Two Marines, Two Purple Hearts
John Kael Weston
July 4, 2013

Do you know, Sir, that you are in the war-zone--the zona di difesa?
Alone
Norman Douglas
I want to see the war-zone, where our boys fit them Germans.
Polly and Her Friends Abroad
Lillian Elizabeth Roy
The warm spring sun beat down from a cloudless sky, and the glorious romance of being out in the war-zone added to the charm.
The Great War As I Saw It
Frederick George Scott
Now this was during the time of the first Matabele war, and I was, as a matter of fact, within the war-zone.
Chatterbox, 1906
Various
They had no more business wandering about the war-zone than they would have had wandering about a hospital where men were dying.
Fighting in Flanders
E. Alexander Powell