Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Thursday that he has ordered the army to occupy 70 percent of the Gaza Strip, marking the latest violation of the October ceasefire agreement.
\n“At this point, we are fully in control of 60 percent of the territory of the Gaza Strip,” Netanyahu stated during a conference hosted by the pre-military Ein Prat leadership academy.
\n“My directive is to get to\u2026 70 percent,” he added.
\nWhen audience members voiced support for full Israeli control over Gaza, Netanyahu responded: “We\u2019re going in order. First 70 percent\u2026 we\u2019ll start with that.”
\nHis remarks came a day after Defence Minister Israel Katz reiterated Israel\u2019s intention to advance a plan for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Gaza through what he termed a “voluntary emigration” scheme.
\n“Everything at the right time and in the right manner,” Katz said.
\nIsrael and Hamas signed a US-backed ceasefire agreement in October aimed at ending the two-year genocide in Gaza.
\nThe deal explicitly stated that “Israel will not occupy or annex Gaza” and that “no one will be forced to leave” the territory.
\nIt also froze the military positions held by both sides at the time of the agreement, pending later phases that envisioned further Israeli withdrawals from Gaza.
\nWhen the ceasefire took effect, Israeli forces controlled approximately 53 percent of Gaza, including significant areas in the north, south, and east of the enclave.
\nSince then, the Israeli military has expanded its control to roughly 60 percent of the territory.
\nA further expansion to 70 percent would confine Gaza\u2019s 2.2 million Palestinians to just 109 square kilometers of land.<\/p>\n
3,000 ceasefire violations
\nIsrael has also been accused of violating numerous other terms of the ceasefire agreement during the more than seven months since its implementation.
\nAccording to Gaza\u2019s Government Media Office, Israeli violations have exceeded 3,000 breaches.
\nIsraeli forces have continued nearly daily airstrikes and shootings targeting Palestinians, killing more than 922 people since the ceasefire began, according to the Palestinian health ministry. UNICEF reported that at least 229 of those killed were children.
\nOverall, Israeli attacks have killed at least 72,800 Palestinians in Gaza since October 2023. Thousands more remain trapped under rubble and are presumed dead.
\nThe strikes intensified this week during the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.
\nThe Palestinian health ministry stated that Israeli forces killed 16 Palestinians between Tuesday and Wednesday alone.
\nIsrael has also failed to implement key provisions of the agreement related to humanitarian aid.
\nThe ceasefire deal stipulated the entry of up to 600 aid trucks per day carrying food, fuel, medical supplies, shelter materials, and commercial goods into Gaza.
\nAccording to Gaza\u2019s Government Media Office, the daily average since the agreement took effect has been just over 200 trucks.
\nAid agencies report that the restricted flow of assistance has left Gaza\u2019s humanitarian crisis largely unresolved, with severe shortages of food, medicine, fuel, and shelter persisting across the enclave.
\nHamas warned on Thursday that the ceasefire agreement in Gaza is at risk of collapse due to Israel\u2019s ongoing violations.
\n#GazaUnderAttack #IsraelPalestineConflict #Netanyahu #GazaCeasefire #HumanitarianCrisis #GazaOccupation #PalestinianLivesMatter #InternationalLaw #WarCrimes #MiddleEast<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Thursday that he has ordered the army to occupy 70 percent of the Gaza Strip, marking the latest violation of the October ceasefire agreement. “At this point, we are fully in control of 60 percent of the territory of the Gaza Strip,” Netanyahu stated during a conference hosted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29344,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle-east-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29343\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}