Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi on Tuesday urged Israel to abandon its plan to take control of 70 percent of Gaza, while witnesses in the Strip said the Israel Defense Forces had pushed forward the Yellow Line that divided the enclave into areas controlled by Hamas and Israel.

Last month, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had ordered the IDF to take control of more territory in the Gaza Strip, flouting the terms of a fragile ceasefire that took effect in October.

Under the deal, Israel is supposed to remain in control of just over 50% of the Strip, but Netanyahu said that troops today hold around 60% of the enclave, and are pushing toward 70%.

“Only 30% of the Strip is effectively left for the Palestinian people,” Sissi said at a G7 summit session on Middle East stability in the French resort of Evian.

This approach “must stop immediately,” he added at the session, also attended by G7 and EU leaders, and the leaders of the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.

Sissi said there is “no alternative to reaching a just and lasting settlement to the Palestinian cause based on the two-state solution” and urges “the implementation of US President Donald Trump’s plan for peace in the Gaza Strip.”

Egypt, which shares a border with Gaza, has been a key mediator between Israel and Hamas since the terror group’s October 7, 2023, massacre in southern Israel triggered the war in the enclave.

The first phase of the Gaza truce saw the release of the final remaining hostages seized in the brutal October 7 assault, in exchange for Palestinian security prisoners held by Israel.

The transition to the second phase, which was supposed to involve Hamas’s disarmament and a gradual withdrawal of the IDF, has been stalled for months as Hamas refuses to give up its weapons.

Hamas blames the absence of a full agreement to end the Gaza conflict on what it says is Israel’s refusal to fulfill first-phase obligations agreed to in October, which halted major fighting but did not end Israeli operations. Israel says its strikes are intended to thwart imminent attacks by Hamas and other terror operatives.

On Sunday, Hamas and other factions said they had given a........

© The Times of Israel