Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, announced on Thursday that he has ordered Israel’s armed forces to seize more territory in Gaza, starting with 70% of the Palestinian area.
“We were at fifty, we moved to sixty,” he said in remarks aired by Channel 12 following Israel’s recent escalation of operations against the militant organizations Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. During an appearance at an event in an occupied West Bank settlement, Netanyahu stated, “My directive is to move to – let’s go step by step.” “First of all, seventy.” Let’s begin with that. We are putting pressure on the Hamas from every angle. We’ll handle the leftovers.
Israeli troops were supposed to withdraw to a “Yellow Line” in Gaza, leaving them in control of roughly 53% of the territory, as part of an October US-brokered agreement that put an end to more than two years of fighting between Israel and Hamas.
The second stage of the precarious ceasefire was supposed to involve the disarmament of Hamas and the gradual evacuation of Israeli forces from a large portion of the Strip, which Israel’s offensive has left to rubble.
However, negotiations to advance to the next phase of the agreement have not produced any results. Rather, Israel has gradually increased its control over the enclave; maps released by the military in March depict an even larger limited region that encloses about 64% of Gaza’s entire land.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, announced on Thursday that he has instructed Israel’s armed forces to seize more territory in Gaza, starting with 70% of the Palestinian area.
On May 26, Israeli airstrikes on a residential building in Gaza City’s Rimal neighborhood prompted the arrival of emergency personnel.
On March 25, an Israeli strike near a tent encampment housing war-displaced Palestinians in Deir el-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, causes a firestorm to erupt.
More than 60% of Gaza is under military control, according to statements made by Netanyahu in public.
In the wake of the Hamas-led strike that sparked the Gaza War on October 7, 2023, he characterizes the area Israel has taken in Gaza, Syria, and Lebanon as “buffer zones” that can fend off future extremist attacks.
However, Palestinians see Israel’s expanding buffer zone around Gaza as part of a plan to drive them out permanently, citing statements made by senior ministers, such as Israel Katz, the head of defense, that they wish to promote “voluntary migration” from Gaza.
Netanyahu’s order coincides with Israel intensifying its operations in Gaza, which it claims are directed at senior Hamas commanders responsible for the 2023 assaults.
Ten days after assassinating his predecessor, Israel assassinated Mohammed Odeh, the head of Hamas’ armed wing, on Tuesday.
At least ten people, including five children, were killed and eighteen others were injured in another strike on Wednesday night that Israel claimed targeted two Hamas commanders, according to Gaza health officials.
The strike occurred on the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, which many Palestinians in Gaza observed by congregating in bombed-out houses and tent encampments.
Etidal Al-Za’im claimed that while she and her family were celebrating the holiday inside their tent, debris from the attack on the next building unexpectedly collapsed on top of them.
“We came out to the sound of a bang, and it took us an hour to find a way out of the tent through the (rubble),” she remarked.
Health officials report that around 900 people have died as a result of Israeli strikes since the ceasefire, while Israel claims that militants murdered four soldiers in the same time frame.
Talks between Israel and Hamas to forward the US plan for Gaza, which calls for the disarmament of Hamas and the withdrawal of Israeli troops, are still at a standstill.
A ‘person in Gaza has no safety at all,’ according to Abu Azam, another Palestinian who saw the Israeli hit on Wednesday.
Abu Azam stated, “He could be hit on his way to the market, in the hospital, in the house, or on the street.”
“As part of the joint operation by the IDF and Shin Bet to eliminate the terrorist Mohammed Odeh, several buildings in the heart of Gaza City that served as a hideout for him were attacked, after months of intelligence surveillance in order to track his movements and the movements of his assistants in the organization,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Shin Bet said in a statement.
In reference to the Hamas-led assault on southern Israel, they further stated that they had also attacked “a nearby apartment belonging to a Hamas terrorist who raided on October 7 and was part of Odeh’s circle of assistants.”
Israel’s military warned that it would operate “with great force” against the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah in a new area of southern Lebanon on Wednesday, declaring it a battle zone and advising locals to go north.
Despite a ceasefire declared on April 16, more than 120 strikes pounded Lebanon’s south and east on Tuesday. The military’s statement, which was posted on X, seemed to indicate additional escalation.
An Israeli military official wrote on X, “We advise residents of southern Lebanon to evacuate to the north of the Zahrani River, as all areas south of the river are considered a combat zone.”
About 25 miles north of Israel’s border with Lebanon, the Zahrani River flows east to west, and the Lebanese territory south of it is roughly 2,000 square kilometers.
