Netanyahu Orders Israeli Military To Take Over 70% Of Gaza Territory

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that he directed Israel’s military to take over 70% of Gaza’s territory, describing a shift from “We are now in 60% of the territory of the Gaza Strip” to “My directive is to move to — take it step by step — first of all 70.” CNN reported that Netanyahu spoke during an interview at a conference in the occupied West Bank, where the audience called for him to take over all of Gaza’s territory.

The CNN account tied the move to the US-brokered ceasefire that went into effect in October, noting that under a October 2025 ceasefire agreement Israeli forces withdrew to a demarcation line known as the “yellow line” that left them in roughly 53% of Gaza.

Al Jazeera

CNN said Israeli strikes since the ceasefire began have killed more than 850 people in Gaza, citing the Palestinian Ministry of Public Health, and it added that Hamas accused Israel of moving the line in a way that “constitutes an explicit and ongoing undermining of the ceasefire agreement.”

NDTV similarly said Netanyahu ordered the Israeli army to take control of 70 per cent of the Gaza Strip, quoting him at a conference in an occupied West Bank settlement as saying “My directive is to move to... 70 percent.”

CNN reported that Nickolay Mladenov, a Bulgarian diplomat in charge of implementing the agreement, warned that without progress the “yellow line” could turn “into a fence or wall, a permanent separation of Gaza.”

CNN also quoted Hamas’s accusation that Israel’s alleged line-shift “constitutes an explicit and ongoing undermining of the ceasefire agreement, a serious violation of its provisions.”

Al-Jazeera Net

The Guardian framed Netanyahu’s 70% directive as threatening to “torpedo an already fragile ceasefire,” and it quoted Netanyahu saying: “We are currently squeezing Hamas. We now control 60% of the territory in the strip.”

In the Guardian’s account, Israel’s defence minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday that the government’s ultimate aim was “voluntary migration,” while Muhammad Shehada, a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said Netanyahu was declaring the Trump framework “to be null and void.”

CNN said the ceasefire plan requires Israeli forces to gradually withdraw from occupied territory in Gaza after Hamas disarms and when an international security force secures parts of the enclave, while also noting there is “no clear timeline for its deployment.”

“Netanyahu says Israel controls 60% of Gaza, aims to expand to 70%: Report Israeli premier did not elaborate on how such plans would be implemented, despite existing ceasefire arrangements envisioning further withdrawals from Gaza Abdel Ra'ouf Arnaout 28 May 2026•Update: 28 May 2026 JERUSALEM Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged Thursday that Israel currently controls 60% of the Gaza Strip and signaled plans to expand it further to 70%”

Anadolu Ajansı

CNN reported that Hamas has refused to disarm or decommission its weaponry, and it warned that stalled progress risks Gaza’s territory becoming permanently divided.

The Guardian added that the expansion of Israeli military control would mean the “2.2 million Palestinians who have survived the war would be crammed into less than a third of their original territory,” which it described as already overcrowded.

The Guardian quoted Muhammad Shehada saying: “Every square metre has another displaced family, another makeshift tent, or some sort of improvised shelter on it,” and it described that expansion as a “direct violation of the October ceasefire.”