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Benjamin Netanyahu has directed the Israeli military to take control of at least 70 per cent of Gaza, defying the terms of a US-brokered truce between Israel and Hamas that took effect in the Palestinian enclave last year.
The Israeli prime minister’s comments, broadcast by Channel 12, come after Israel escalated its operations against the militant groups Hamas in Gaza and Hizbollah in Lebanon. In recent days Israeli forces have killed a senior Hamas commander in an air strike and advanced deeper into southern Lebanon.
“We are currently squeezing Hamas. We now control 60 per cent of the territory of the Gaza Strip,” Netanyahu said during an interview at an event in a settlement in the occupied West Bank.
“My directive is to go . . . first to 70 [per cent]. Let’s start with that.”
Under the terms of the fragile truce that came into effect last year, ending more than two years of fighting between Israel and Hamas, Israeli forces withdrew to the so-called “Yellow Line” in Gaza which left them in control of about 53 per cent of the Palestinian enclave.
The next phase of the deal was meant to see a phased withdrawal of Israeli troops from much of Gaza, which has been reduced to ruins by Israel’s offensive, and the disarmament of Hamas.
However, talks on moving to the next stage of the deal have failed to yield progress, and Israel has steadily expanded its hold over the enclave. Earlier this year it issued maps to aid groups which implied that it had taken control of another 10 per cent of Gaza’s territory.
The expansion has forced Gaza’s 2mn population — most of whom have been displaced multiple times — into an ever-shrinking sliver of land where they continue to endure catastrophic humanitarian conditions.
Gazans have also contended with repeated strikes by Israeli forces that have killed more than 900 people since the ceasefire came into force last October, according to the enclave’s health ministry. Israel says militants have killed four Israeli soldiers over the same period.
Israeli officials have insisted a “buffer zone” will be maintained inside Gaza in order to protect Israel against an attack such as the October 7 2023 assault by Hamas that triggered the war in Gaza.
But members of Netanyahu’s cabinet have also spoken openly of their desire to empty Gaza of its Palestinian population.
Defence minister Israel Katz on Wednesday said Israel would revive a controversial “voluntary emigration plan” for the enclave.
Meanwhile, ultranationalist finance minister Bezalel Smotrich earlier this year said the next government should “encourage” the “migration” of Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza. Elections are due by the end of October.
The idea has been denounced by critics as tantamount to ethnic cleansing, and contradicts US President Donald Trump’s 20-point peace plan which stipulates that Palestinians will be encouraged to stay in Gaza.
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