Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he has ordered the Israeli army to take over 70 percent of Gaza territory.
He has stated that Israel is "tightening" its control over Hamas, CNN reported.
"We are now at 60 percent of the territory of the Gaza Strip. We were at 50 percent, we moved to 60. My order is to move - step by step - towards 70. Let's start there," he said during an interview at a conference in the occupied West Bank.
As he spoke, the audience called on him to take over the entire territory of Gaza.
The Israeli Defense Forces had published maps in late April showing that the army at that time already controlled approximately 64 percent of Gaza.
Capturing more of Gaza's territory would force the estimated 2 million Palestinians to live in an ever-shrinking portion of the devastated territory.
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Netanyahu: No Israeli withdrawal from Gaza without complete disarmament of Hamas
Under the October 2025 ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, Israeli forces withdrew to a border line known as the "yellow line" which encompassed approximately 53% of Gaza.
On Tuesday, Hamas accused Israel of shifting the line, saying it "constitutes a clear and continuous undermining of the ceasefire agreement, a serious violation of its provisions, and an open attempt to impose new facts on the ground by force, with the aim of strengthening military control over the Strip and undermining any real chance of stabilizing the situation or making de-escalation efforts succeed."
