Netanyahu 70%-Gaza Directive Holds Even as Trump “Don’t” Halts Lebanon Strikes
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s directive to expand Israeli control of Gaza to 70% of the territory — announced last Thursday and rolled forward through the weekend, Monday and into Tuesday — remains in operational effect even as Trump’s “Don’t” intervention has halted the Beirut Dahieh strike campaign. 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. The 70%-Gaza directive is the unbroken Israeli operational thread through the Trump-Netanyahu Beirut intervention.
The 70%-control target represents a significant expansion of Israeli territorial control from the roughly 40-45% Israel was operating in before the directive. Critics — including some inside the Israeli security establishment — say the territorial-control objective is incompatible with the second-phase obligations Israel signed up to. Gaza’s health ministry says the Israeli campaign has killed at least 72,800 Palestinians since the war began in October 2023. The Tuesday picture — Beirut strikes halted by Trump intervention, Gaza 70% directive holding, Lebanon ambassadorial talks launched in Washington — is the most US-engaged regional posture since the September 2024 Hezbollah decapitation operation. The Gaza track is the next likely point of US pressure if the Iran framework signs in the coming days.