IN BRIEF
- It's estimated Israel already controls 64 per cent of territory in the Gaza Strip.
- Israeli officials have recommended the "voluntary migration" of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he has directed the country's military to take more of the Gaza Strip, initially by seizing 70 per cent of the Palestinian territory, where the population is already penned into a tiny enclave of land along the coast.
Israel effectively controls an estimated 64 per cent of the tiny coastal strip, bombarded to ruins by Israel's two-year military assault that followed the 2023 Hamas attack on southern Israel.
Under a truce brokered by the US in October that has failed to halt Israeli attacks or secure Hamas' disarmament, Israeli troops were meant to withdraw to a "Yellow Line" demarcating the extent of their control.
Marked on military maps, that line put Israel in control of 53 per cent of the Gaza Strip, with Hamas ruling the rest.
Reuters has reported that Israel has unilaterally moved the concrete blocks marking the Yellow Line on the ground deeper into Hamas-controlled territory.
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Maps issued by the military in March showed an even bigger restricted area that analysts say cordons off about 64 per cent of the Gaza Strip's territory in total.
Netanyahu has repeatedly said in public remarks that the military controls more than 60 per cent of the enclave.
Speaking to a conference in a settlement in the occupied West Bank, the Israeli leader said even more of the Gaza Strip would be taken.
"We were at 50 [per cent], we moved to 60. My directive is to move to — let's go step by step," Netanyahu said on Thursday.
"First of all, 70. Let's start with that. We're pressing them (Hamas) from all sides. We'll deal with the remnants."
Netanyahu describes the territory Israel has seized in the Gaza Strip, Syria and Lebanon as "buffer zones" that can stave off potential militant attacks following the October 7 Hamas-led assault that set off the Gaza war.
Palestinians view Israel's widening 'buffer zone' in Gaza as a part of a strategy to permanently displace its residents, pointing to remarks from senior ministers, including defence chief Israel Katz, saying they want to encourage "voluntary migration" from the strip.
Israeli strikes have killed more than 900 people since the truce, health officials say, while Israel says four soldiers were killed by militants during the same period.
Israel and Hamas remain deadlocked in talks to advance a US plan for the Gaza Strip under which Israeli troops would withdraw and Hamas disarm.
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