Benjamin Netanyahu Orders Israeli Military To Seize 70% Of Gaza Strip

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that he had directed the country’s military to expand its control over the Gaza Strip to 70 per cent, after saying Israel was “currently squeezing Hamas” and “We now control 60 per cent of the territory in the strip.”

“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has instructed the Israeli army to expand its control of the Gaza Strip to 70 percent, according to remarks aired by Israeli media”

Al Jazeera

Netanyahu told an audience at a conference in an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank that under the existing ceasefire arrangements the military had controlled around half of Gaza and that his directive was “to move to... 70 per cent.”

Al Jazeera

Hindustan Times said the first phase of the truce involved the release of the remaining hostages taken during Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel in exchange for Palestinians held in Israeli detention, while the second phase was expected to focus on Hamas laying down arms and a gradual withdrawal of Israeli troops from parts of Gaza.

The same Hindustan Times report said the ceasefire terms remain stalled as negotiations over the next stage are deadlocked, with both sides accusing each other of violating the agreement.

Hindustan Times added that, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which operates under Hamas authority and whose figures are considered reliable by the United Nations, more than 900 people have been killed by Israeli strikes since the ceasefire began, while Israel said on Wednesday it had killed Mohammed Odeh, the new head of Hamas’s armed wing in Gaza.

CNN reported that Netanyahu said, “My directive is to move to — take it step by step — first of all 70,” as the audience called for him to take over all of Gaza’s territory during the conference in the occupied West Bank.

CNN also said Hamas accused Israel of moving the line, calling it “constitutes an explicit and ongoing undermining of the ceasefire agreement, a serious violation of its provisions.”

Arab News PK

The Guardian framed the same territorial goal as a violation of the October ceasefire, quoting Netanyahu as saying, “We are currently squeezing Hamas. We now control 60% of the territory in the strip.”

The Guardian added that Muhammad Shehada said, “Netanyahu is now declaring the whole Trump deal, the framework for Gaza, to be null and void.”

CNN said Nickolay Mladenov warned earlier this month that without progress the “yellow line could turn ‘into a fence or wall, a permanent separation of Gaza,’” while also noting that civilians are still being killed and families live in fear of Israeli airstrikes.

The Guardian said Israel’s ultimate aim, as described by defence minister Israel Katz, was for large numbers of Palestinians to leave Gaza by what he called “voluntary migration,” while human rights activists describe it as a long-term plan for ethnic cleansing by making living conditions inside Gaza intolerable.

“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that he has directed Israel’s military to take over 70% of Gaza’s territory”

CNN

The Guardian warned that expansion of Israeli military control would be a direct violation of the October ceasefire and cited the Trump plan’s language that “No one will be forced to leave Gaza, and those who wish to leave will be free to do so and free to return.”

CNN reported that the seizure of more of Gaza would force approximately 2 million Palestinians into a shrinking fraction of the coastal enclave’s shattered territory.

CNN also said that under the October 2025 ceasefire agreement Israeli forces withdrew to the “yellow line” leaving them in roughly 53% of Gaza, while it described Hamas’s refusal to disarm or decommission its weaponry as a key element of the ceasefire plan upon which much of the future of Gaza rests.

In parallel, Al Jazeera said the Israeli bombing in Gaza continues with near-daily attacks and that an Al Jazeera tally from October to April counted at least 2,400 Israeli violations, while it described displaced families living in overcrowded tents, schools or damaged structures and said clean water is scarce.