Smoke and flames rise from the residential area after the Israeli attack at the al-Shati Refugee Camp on the second day of Eid al-Adha in Gaza City, Palestine on May 28. Photo / Getty Images
Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered Israeli forces to seize 70% of Gaza, defying the terms of the US-brokered ceasefire that has governed the conflict since October.
Israel already controls an estimated 64% of the territory – itself a violation of the ceasefire agreement, which set a border known as the Yellow Line, giving Israel control of roughly 53%.
The new directive pushes well beyond even that expanded control, squeezing about two million Palestinians into a shrinking fraction of the coastal territory.
On Thursday, Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, said Israel’s forces were in full control of 60% of the Gaza Strip and that his directive was to reach 70%.
“We were at 50 [per cent], we moved to 60. My directive is to move to – let’s go step by step,” he said. When an audience member called for Israel to seize the entire territory, he responded: “First 70%. We’ll start with that.”
The Yellow Line is marked on official military maps, but Hamas and independent observers have accused Israel of moving the concrete barriers that physically mark it on the ground.
Netanyahu has described the territories Israel has seized in Gaza, Syria and Lebanon as security buffer zones designed to prevent a repeat of the Hamas-led assault on October 7, 2023, which triggered the war in Gaza.
Palestinians fear the expanding buffer zone is part of a longer-term strategy of permanent displacement, pointing to remarks from senior ministers, including Israel Katz, the Defence Minister, who has spoken of encouraging “voluntary migration” from Gaza.
The directive comes as Israel intensifies strikes on senior Hamas figures whom it says were involved in planning the 2023 attacks. On Tuesday, Israel killed the head of Hamas’ armed wing, 10 days after killing his predecessor.
A strike on Wednesday night, which Israel said had targeted two Hamas leaders, killed at least 10 people – including five children – and wounded 18 others, according to Gaza health officials.
They also said Israeli strikes had killed more than 900 people since the truce took effect. Israel has claimed that militants have killed four of its soldiers during the same period.
Talks to advance a US plan for Gaza’s future, in which Israeli troops would withdraw in exchange for Hamas disarming, remain deadlocked.
Meanwhile, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations said his country had been added to a UN blacklist of sexual violence in conflict zones, alongside Hamas, on Friday.
“This is a political decision! Disconnected from the facts and reality!” Danny Danon wrote on X, referring to a report expected to be published soon.
Danon was informed about it during a phone call with António Guterres, the UN secretary-general, according to a post on X by the Israeli mission to the UN.
In his annual report to the security council on conflict-related sexual violence, published in August last year, Guterres put Israel and Russia “on notice” that both could be added this year to the list of parties credibly suspected of committing or being responsible for patterns of rape or other forms of sexual violence in conflict.
In a separate post on Thursday, Danon said equating Israel with Hamas marked a “new low”.
Israel, he added, had responded in detail to each allegation and had invited UN representatives to visit and assess the situation on the ground – an invitation that had not been taken up.
Late on Thursday, Israel’s foreign ministry said it would sever all ties with Guterres.
“Given that Antonio Guterres has chosen to violate every standard of honesty, integrity and professionalism, Israel has decided to sever all ties with the Secretary-General’s Office and will wait until a new UN Secretary-General is appointed,” the ministry posted on X.
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