Thursday, May 28th, saw Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instruct the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to secure 70% of Gaza. He told conference delegates:
We are currently squeezing Hamas; we now control 60% of the territory of the Strip—you know this. We were at 50, we moved to 60. My directive is to move to … 70. Let’s start with that. We’re pressing them from all sides, we’ll deal with the remnants.
This is the latest public remark from Netanyahu where he appears to confirm that the IDF controls more than half of the Gaza Strip, up from the 53% agreed to in October’s ceasefire talks.
Under the current U.S.-led truce, brokered by the Trump administration, IDF forces withdrew behind a demarcation line, known as the ‘yellow line,’ while some Hamas attacks continued. Further Israeli withdrawal is conditional on Hamas disarming. More broadly, Israel remains committed to dismantling Hamas for its role in the pogrom on October 7, 2023.
The latest announcement follows a direction to the IDF to “crush” Hezbollah, publicly acknowledged by Netanyahu on Monday, May 25th.
