Netanyahu Directs Israeli Forces to Expand Gaza Control to 70%
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday he had directed Israel’s military to take more of Gaza, initially by seizing 70% of the territory. Israel’s military continues to conduct strikes and seize territory despite the October 10 cease-fire with Hamas. Many of the directive’s targets sit in territory Israel had previously committed to withdraw from under the second phase of the October ceasefire agreement. The expansion follows the killing of newly-appointed Hamas military wing leader Mohammed Odeh and Hamas’s subsequent funeral procession through Gaza City.
The 70% target represents a significant expansion of Israeli territorial control from the roughly 40-45% Israel was operating in before the directive. The directive is presented internally as a response to Hamas’s failure to release remaining hostages and disarm under the October ceasefire framework. Critics — including some inside the Israeli security establishment — say the territorial-control objective is incompatible with the second-phase obligations Israel signed up to. Since the October 10 ceasefire, Israel has killed at least 906 Palestinians and injured more than 2,747 others, per Al Jazeera’s ceasefire-violation tracker; Gaza’s health ministry says the campaign has killed at least 72,800 Palestinians since the war began in October 2023. The 70%-control directive is the largest single Israeli escalation in Gaza since the post-ceasefire period began.