Netanyahu orders Israeli military to move toward occupying 70% of Gaza: Report

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that he had instructed the military to expand its control over Gaza and move toward occupying 70% of the territory, signaling a further escalation in Israel’s operations in the enclave.

Speaking at a conference in the occupied West Bank, Netanyahu said Israeli forces were steadily increasing their hold over Gaza as part of efforts to pressure Hamas.

“We are now in 60% of the territory of the Gaza Strip. We were at 50%, we moved to 60%,” CNN quoted Netanyahu as saying.

“My directive is to move to – take it step by step – first of all 70. Let’s start with that,” he added.

Audience members at the event reportedly urged Netanyahu to take control of the entire Gaza Strip.

Maps issued by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to international aid groups in late April showed Israeli forces already controlling roughly 64% of Gaza, according to reports.

Any further territorial expansion is expected to intensify humanitarian pressures in the enclave, potentially forcing nearly two million Palestinians into an increasingly limited area of Gaza’s devastated coastal territory.

Under the October 2025 ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, Israeli troops had withdrawn to a demarcation boundary known as the “yellow line,” which covered approximately 53% of Gaza.

On Tuesday, Hamas accused Israel of altering that boundary in violation of the ceasefire agreement.

The group said the move “constitutes 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 stabilising the situation or making de-escalation efforts succeed.”

With inputs from agencies