Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has publicly ordered the Israeli occupation military to expand its control over the Gaza Strip to 70 percent of the territory, in a brazen declaration made at a conference held inside an illegal settlement in the occupied West Bank, confirming what Palestinians and international observers have warned for months that the ceasefire was never intended to lead to peace but was merely a pause in a systematic campaign of territorial seizure and ethnic cleansing.
Netanyahu stated that Israel currently controls an estimated 64 percent of the Gaza Strip, bombarded to ruins by Israel’s two-year military assault. Speaking to the conference, he said the military had controlled 50 percent of Gaza under the terms of the ceasefire, then moved to 60 percent, and that his directive was now to move to 70 percent. When a member of the audience shouted that Israel should take the entire enclave, Netanyahu said the occupation was going in order, step by step.
The seizure of more of Gaza would force approximately two million Palestinians into a shrinking fraction of the coastal enclave’s shattered territory.
The Israeli occupation military had already expanded its control of Gaza by 11 percent beyond the Yellow Line, which was supposed to mark the limit of Israeli military presence under the terms of the US-brokered ceasefire that came into effect in October. Israel has unilaterally moved the concrete blocks marking the Yellow Line deeper into Palestinian territory, and maps issued by the military in March showed a restricted area that analysts say cordons off around 64 percent of Gaza’s total territory.
Nickolay Mladenov, the high representative overseeing the US-founded Board of Peace for Gaza, warned the UN Security Council that the deteriorating situation in the enclave risks becoming permanent, saying the Yellow Line could turn into a fence or wall creating a permanent separation of Gaza. He urged the international community to use every means at its disposal to press both sides.
The transition to the second phase of the ceasefire, which was supposed to involve Hamas’s disarmament and a gradual withdrawal of the Israeli occupation army, has been stalled for months. Gaza remains gripped by daily violence, with the Israeli occupation having martyred more than 900 Palestinians since the ceasefire came into effect, according to Gaza’s health ministry, whose figures are considered reliable by the United Nations. The total Palestinian death toll since October 7, 2023 has now surpassed 72,775.
Netanyahu’s declaration strips away any remaining pretence that the Israeli occupation has any intention of honouring its ceasefire commitments or withdrawing from Palestinian land. With 70 percent of Gaza now formally targeted for occupation and the audience calling for 100 percent, the direction of Israeli policy could not be clearer. The question that remains for the international community is how long it will continue to call this a ceasefire while watching Gaza be swallowed piece by piece.
