Netanyahu Orders Israeli Military To Expand Control In Gaza To 70%, Germany Objects

Israeli plans to extend military control in Gaza have drawn German concern after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the Israeli military to increase control in the enclave to 70 percent, with a German Foreign Office spokesperson saying Berlin opposes any permanent division of Gaza.

“The Israeli army is gradually pushing back the 'yellow line' that marks its area of control, confirming its intention to annex the territory and to proceed with the displacement of Palestinians from Gaza”

Agence Media Palestine

Al Jazeera reports that the comment came as questions grew over the durability of the nominal “ceasefire” brokered by the United States and regional countries, including Qatar and Turkiye, in October, when the Israeli military was required to pull back so it controlled about half of Gaza.

Agence Media Palestine

Netanyahu said, “We were at 50, we moved to 60,” as he explained that he had ordered the military to increase control to 70 percent, and he added, “We’re pressing them [Hamas] from all sides. We’ll deal with the remnants.”

Al Jazeera also reports that Israel agreed to withdraw its troops to behind the ‘Yellow Line’ artificial border as the ceasefire came into effect in October, leaving it occupying about 53 percent of Gaza, and that the steady expansion of Israeli control has raised Palestinian fears of permanent annexation.

In response, Ismail al-Thawabta, head of the Hamas-run Gaza government media office, said “any attempt to impose a new reality of occupation in Gaza is null and illegitimate,” calling Netanyahu’s statement “represents a dangerous escalation.”

The expansion of Israeli control is framed in the sources as worsening conditions for Gaza’s 2.3 million people, which Al Jazeera says are already squeezed into about 35 percent of the small enclave.

Al Jazeera reports that a report published last month by the United Nations and European Union said Israel’s war on Gaza has had a “catastrophic impact on human development,” estimating that more than $70bn was needed over the next decade for recovery and reconstruction.

Al Jazeera

The same Al Jazeera account says more than 50 percent of hospitals in the territory are non-functional and nearly all schools have been destroyed or damaged, while Israel said on Friday it had killed senior Hamas commander Imad Hassan Hussein Aslim and a colleague in a strike in Gaza earlier in the week.

In a separate report, Agence Media Palestine describes how the Israeli army forced families, refugees along the main artery of Salah al-Din Street, to flee again, and it says the “yellow line” defined the provisional withdrawal of Israeli troops behind a perimeter of nearly 53% of the Palestinian enclave.

Agence Media Palestine adds that since the ceasefire went into effect, Israeli attacks have killed at least 414 Palestinians and wounded 1,145 others, while it also cites a Palestinian Center for Human Rights statement that the Israeli army now controls 60% of the Gaza Strip.

New maps described by مونت كارلو الدولية show Israeli army control extending to nearly two-thirds of the Gaza Strip, after the Israeli army expanded what it calls the no-go zone inside the territory by more than 11 percent outside the Yellow Line since the ceasefire in October.

“The fears of residents and the displaced in the Gaza Strip are rising as Israeli airstrikes continue in different parts of the enclave, in parallel with Israeli statements about expanding military control from 60% to 70% of the Strip, which is causing anxiety and vigilance among the displaced families living in difficult humanitarian conditions”

Al-Jazeera Net

The same source says Reuters quoted two aid sources that the army sent these maps to organizations in mid-March but did not publish them publicly, and it reports that the Israeli army says the areas are intended to 'enable the delivery of aid' while requiring coordination with Israeli forces.

مونت كارلو الدولية also reports that medical sources said more than 800 Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire, many in the area near the Yellow Line where camps for the displaced and populated areas are concentrated.

Jad Isaac, director-general of the Applied Research Institute Jerusalem, is quoted by مونت كارلو الدولية saying this means Israel controls at least 64 percent of the Gaza Strip, and it adds that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stressed at the end of last March that more than half of the Gaza Strip is under Israeli control.

Al Jazeera Net describes how camp director Abu Maher told Al Jazeera Mubasher that the latest wave of targeting in al-Rimal pushed displaced people to reconsider displacement, and he said, “We were hoping to return to the eastern areas; now the hope has completely vanished,” adding that any further expansion could place current displacement areas within their direct danger.