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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Israel\u2019s Netanyahu Says He Ordered Forces to Occupy 70 Percent of Gaza</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Quds News Network</div>
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<div class="gmail-reader-estimated-time">May 28, 2026</div>
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</p><img src="cid:ii_mpq382oq0" alt="image.png" width="498" height="332"><br>ICC-wanted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
said on Thursday that he had directed the Israeli military to take
control of 70 percent of the Gaza Strip as a \u201cstart,\u201d amid relentless
Israeli attacks and ongoing ceasefire violations.
<p></p><div>
<p>Occupied Palestine (QNN)- ICC-wanted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu said on Thursday that he had directed the Israeli military to
take control of 70 percent of the Gaza Strip as a \u201cstart,\u201d amid
relentless Israeli attacks and ongoing ceasefire violations.</p>
<p>During an interview at a conference in the occupied West Bank,
Netanyahu said that Israel is \u201ctightening\u201d its grip on Hamas. \u201cWe are
now in 60% of the territory of the Gaza Strip. We were at 50%. We moved
to 60%,\u201d he said. </p>
<p>When someone in the audience shouted that Israel should take the
entire besieged enclave, Netanyahu said \u201cwe are going in order\u201d,
according to The Times of Israel. </p>
<p>\u201cMy directive is to move to \u2014 take it step by step \u2014 first of all 70. Let\u2019s start with that.\u201d </p>
<p>In late April, the Israeli military issued maps to international aid
groups that showed the forces already controlling approximately 64% of
Gaza by expanding the so-called \u201cyellow line\u201d westward across Gaza in
the seven months since the ceasefire, forcing approximately 2 million
Palestinians into a shrinking fraction of the coastal enclave\u2019s
shattered territory.</p>
<p>According to a new report by the Wall Street Journal, Israel now
holds around 59% of the enclave, up from 53% at the start of the
US-brokered ceasefire in October.</p>
<p>On Tuesday, Hamas said Israel\u2019s moving of the line \u201cconstitutes an
explicit and ongoing undermining of the ceasefire agreement, a serious
violation of its provisions, and an exposed attempt to impose new facts
on the ground by force, with the aim of entrenching military control
over the Strip and undermining any real chance of stabilizing the
situation or making de-escalation efforts succeed.\u201d</p>
<p>Nickolay Mladenov, a Bulgarian diplomat who serves as the official in
charge of implementing the agreement, said earlier this month that the
\u201cyellow line\u201d could turn \u201cinto a fence or wall, a permanent separation
of Gaza.\u201d</p>
<p>There has been a spike in Israeli attacks in the war-torn Strip despite the ceasefire.</p>
<p>Israel has violated the ceasefire which took effect in October more
than 3,000 times, killing hundreds and blocking the entry of much-needed
aid.</p>
<p>Israeli forces have killed more than 870 Palestinians since the ceasefire, including over 300 children, women, and the elderly.</p>
<p>Over 72,700 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since the war began on October 7, 2023. </p>
<p>United Nations human rights chief Volker Turk condemned Israel\u2019s
recent attacks in the Gaza Strip, saying that \u201cthe unrelenting pattern
of killings\u201d reflects Israel\u2019s \u201csweeping impunity\u201d.</p>
<p>\u201cPalestinians are still being killed and injured in what is left of
their homes, shelters and tents of displaced families, on the streets,
in vehicles, at a medical facility and a classroom,\u201d Turk said.</p>
<p>The yellow line is a non-physical demarcation line separating the
Israeli occupation forces deployment from certain areas of Gaza, while
occupying more than half of the Strip. The line divides Gaza into two
zones: an eastern area under Israeli military control and a western area
where Palestinians live, were forcibly displaced to, and are under
constant Israeli threat of attacks.</p>
<p>During a visit to the Gaza Strip in December, the Israeli military\u2019s
chief of staff, Eyal Zamir, said unequivocally that the \u201cYellow Line\u201d is
\u201ca new border line\u201d.</p>
<p>Haaretz previously reported that the Israeli military is turning the
\u201cyellow line\u201d into a physical border, despite it being initially
intended as a temporary demarcation. The report added that there is
currently no detailed mechanism regulating a withdrawal from it.</p>
<p>The Defence Minister, Israel Katz, said on Wednesday that Israel\u2019s
ultimate aim was to expel large numbers of Palestinians from Gaza in
what he claimed to be \u201cvoluntary migration\u201d but human rights activists
describe as a long-term plan for ethnic cleansing by making living
conditions inside Gaza intolerable.</p>
<p>Muhammad Shehada, a visiting fellow at the European Council on
Foreign Relations, said: \u201cNetanyahu is now declaring the whole Trump
deal, the framework for Gaza, to be null and void. That\u2019s what it means
in a nutshell. There\u2019s no other way to spell it out.\u201d</p>
<p>Israeli forces have systematically destroyed the remaining buildings
in their zone, so its expansion to 70% of Gaza would mean that the 2.2
million Palestinians who have survived the war would be crammed into
less than a third of their original territory, which was already
overcrowded.</p>
<p>\u201cThe conditions there are already appalling. It is the single most overcrowded place on the face of the planet,\u201d Shehada said. </p>
<p>\u201cEvery square metre has another displaced family, another makeshift
tent, or some sort of improvised shelter on it. So it would be a death
sentence for a lot of people who physically have no place to go.\u201d</p>
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