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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that he had directed the Israeli military to take over 70 percent of the Gaza strip.

In comments at a conference hosted by a “pre-military” academy in an illegal settlement in the occupied West Bank, Netanyahu said that his “directive is to move to… take [Gaza] step by step… first of all 70 percent.”

“One hundred! One hundred!” audience members shouted.

“First, 70,” Netanyahu said. “Let’s start with that.”

He said that the military is already in control of 60 percent of Gaza. “We were at 50 percent, we moved to 60 percent,” he asserted.

Biden-Era Advisors Who Oversaw Gaza Genocide Regroup to Shape Dem Foreign Policy

Under the U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement of October 2025, the Israeli military created a “yellow line” that divided Gaza in half, with Israel controlling 53 percent of the territory. Palestinians who approached the line, marked by blocks painted yellow, were shot and killed by Israeli forces — despite the so-called ceasefire. Reuters noted in January that Israel had moved some of these blocks deeper into Gaza, destroying more areas and forcing residents to flee further west. Research agency Forensic Architecture found that by December, Israel had taken 58 percent of Gaza, and continued to move the line forward.

At the end of April, Israel issued new military maps that........

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