by Andreea Popescu and Rami Ayyub
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that he had ordered the Israeli army to take control of an even larger area of the Gaza Strip, bringing it to 70% of the Palestinian enclave, with the effect of confining Gazans to an even smaller fragment of territory.
Israel currently controls around 64% of the Gaza Strip, completely ravaged by bombings carried out by the Jewish state as part of the offensive launched in retaliation for the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023 during which 1,200 people were killed. were killed, according to Israeli authorities.
Nearly 73,000 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the start of this Israeli military campaign, according to local authorities, while 2 million residents of the Palestinian enclave have been displaced by the bombings.
At least 900 Palestinians have been killed since the announcement last October of a ceasefire led by the United States, while Israeli strikes continued almost daily in Gaza. Five Israeli soldiers have been killed in the enclave since that date. Hamas and Israel accuse each other of violating the ceasefire.
An independent UN commission of inquiry denounced in a report published last September a genocide in Gaza incited by the highest Israeli officials, including Benjamin Netanyahu, who is the subject of an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes and crimes against presumed humanity.
As part of the ceasefire agreement, a “Yellow Line” was set to demarcate the area controlled by the Israeli army. This line, which appears on military maps, gives the IDF control of approximately 53% of the Gaza Strip, while Hamas controls the rest.
“STEP BY STEP”
Reuters reported last month that Israel “made the unilateral decision to expand the area demarcated by this “Yellow Line” to establish a restricted zone which, according to analysts, increases its territorial control in the Palestinian enclave to around 64%.
Inside the area demarcated by the “Yellow Line”, Israel razed most of the buildings that had not been destroyed by the bombings using bulldozers.
Benjamin Netanyahu has publicly stated on several occasions that the IDF controls more than 60% of the Gaza Strip. During a conference organized in a Jewish colony in the occupied West Bank, the Israeli Prime Minister declared on Thursday that this control would be further strengthened.
“We were at 50 (percent), we advanced to 60,” he said. “My directive is, let’s take it step by step, first, 70. Let’s start with that. We’re pressing (Hamas) from all sides. We’ll take care of the residue.”
The Israeli government describes the militarily occupied territories in Gaza, Syria and Lebanon as “buffer zones” intended to prevent an attack similar to that of October 7.
The Palestinians view the moves as a strategy designed to permanently move them out of the Gaza Strip, citing comments made by Israeli officials.
The Israeli Minister of Defense, Israel Katz, said he wanted to encourage “voluntary migrations” outside the Palestinian enclave, while the Israeli Minister of Finance, Belazel Smotrich, called for occupying the entire Gaza Strip and thus ruling out the prospect of a Palestinian state.
Benjamin Netanyahu made his announcement two days after Israel said it had killed the new military leader of Hamas in Gaza, ten days after killing his predecessor.
According to Gazan health authorities, an Israeli strike carried out Wednesday evening and presented as targeting two Hamas leaders killed at least 10 people, including five children, and injured 18 others.
(Andreea Popescu and Rami Ayyub, with the contribution of Dawoud Abu Alkas and Bassam Masoud in Gaza; edited by Jean Terzian)
