Tel-Aviv:Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday said he has asked the country's military to expand its control over the Gaza Strip, stating that the objective is to take over 70 per cent of the territory, CNN reported. The comments were made during an interview at a conference in the occupied West Bank, CNN reported. Israel is "tightening" its grip on Hamas and now controls some 60 percent of Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday said he has asked the country's military to expand its control over the Gaza Strip, stating that the objective is to take over 70 per cent of the territory, CNN reported. The comments were made during an interview at a conference in the occupied West Bank, CNN reported. Israel is "tightening" its grip on Hamas and now controls some 60 percent of Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.We are in 60% of the territory of the Gaza Strip now. “We were at 50 percent. We moved to 60 percent. My directive is to move to -- take it step by step -- first of all 70,” he said, noting the military will go step by step.
His comments follow earlier reports that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had already provided maps to aid agencies showing control of around 64 per cent of Gaza. CNN said further expansion of control would squeeze almost 2 million Palestinians into an ever-shrinking sliver of the besieged enclave.
Under a ceasefire agreement reportedly made in October 2025 between Israel and Hamas, Israeli forces had retreated to a demarcation known as the “yellow line”, leaving them in control of about 53 per cent of Gaza.
Hamas blames Israel for shifting the lineBut Hamas has accused Israel of moving the line, calling it a violation of the agreement and an attempt to “impose new facts on the ground.”
“Moving the line is a clear and continued violation of the ceasefire agreement, and a serious violation of its articles, and a naked attempt to impose new facts on the ground by force, with the aim of entrenching the military control of the Strip and undermining any real opportunity to stabilise the situation or make de-escalation efforts succeed,” Hamas said in a statement, as reported by CNN.
Israel is still hitting Hamas leadership in Gaza with precision strikes. In these efforts, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said they killed two "senior" Hamas operatives in northern Gaza yesterday.
IDF kills Muhammad Odeh in Gaza StripThe IDF killed on Tuesday in Gaza the new head of the terrorist organisation Hamas’ military wing, and one of the planners of the October 7 massacre, Muhammad Odeh. '"The operation was conducted under the instruction of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz," Israel PMO posted on X.
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