Netanyahu Directs Israeli Military to Expand Control of Gaza to 70 Percent

On May 28, 2026, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly announced that he had directed the Israeli military to expand its territorial control of the Gaza Strip from approximately 60 percent to 70 percent. Netanyahu made these remarks at a conference hosted by a pre-military academy in an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank, where audience members called for 100 percent Israeli control of Gaza. Netanyahu responded by saying Israel should proceed step by step, starting with 70 percent control.

The current conflict in Gaza began with Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on October 7, 2023. In October 2025, a U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement was reached. Under the terms of that ceasefire, Israel was allocated control of approximately 53 percent of Gaza, east of a demarcation boundary called the Yellow Line, with Hamas controlling the remainder.

Israel has also been engaged in separate military operations against Hezbollah — an Iranian-backed militant group designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. and EU — along its northern borders. Israeli forces have occupied large areas of southern Lebanon and crossed the Litani River during these operations. Netanyahu has described the territory Israel has seized in Gaza, Syria, and Lebanon as "buffer zones" intended to prevent future militant attacks.

Since the October 2025 ceasefire, Israel's de facto territorial control of Gaza has expanded well beyond the agreement's original 53 percent allocation. Israel unilaterally moved the concrete blocks marking the Yellow Line deeper into Gaza territory, expanding the militarily controlled area. Military maps issued by Israel in late March or early April showed a new restricted area claiming control of approximately 64 percent of Gaza. Netanyahu's directive to expand to 70 percent control goes beyond the boundaries established by the October 2025 ceasefire.

Since the October 2025 ceasefire began, Israeli strikes have killed more than 900 people in Gaza, according to Gaza Health Ministry figures. The Gaza Health Ministry operates under Hamas administration. On Tuesday, May 27, 2026, Israel killed Hamas's armed wing chief, following the killing of his predecessor approximately ten days earlier. On Wednesday night, May 28, an Israeli strike targeted two senior Hamas commanders in northern Gaza, killing at least 10 people including several children and wounding approximately 18 to 20 others, according to Gaza health officials.

The total death toll in Gaza since the war began in October 2023 now exceeds 72,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz announced in a statement that a plan for voluntary emigration from Gaza would be implemented. This policy announcement followed Netanyahu's directive to expand territorial control.

Due to Israeli military occupation, approximately two-thirds of Gaza is now inaccessible to its residents. Humanitarian conditions in Gaza are severe, with overcrowded displacement camps, scarce clean water, poor waste collection increasing disease risks, and frequent air strikes in residential areas. EU Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid Hadja Lahbib stated that Gaza's humanitarian space is shrinking and that expanding Israeli military control is hampering aid workers and cutting access to clean water.

Sources across the political spectrum agree on the core facts of Netanyahu's directive and Israel's expanding territorial control. However, two major points of interpretation divide outlets along ideological lines: the purpose of Israel's territorial expansion and the nature of the emigration policy.

Left-leaning outlets frame Israel's expanding buffer zone as part of a strategy to permanently displace Palestinians from Gaza. Center outlets such as Reuters report this displacement concern as the Palestinian perspective while also presenting Israel's security rationale for buffer zones, without endorsing either framing. Center-right outlets present the Israeli government's position that the buffer zones are intended to prevent future militant attacks, without acknowledging the displacement interpretation.

Similarly, left-leaning outlets explicitly characterize Israel's "voluntary emigration" policy as ethnic cleansing. Center and center-right outlets report the policy using the Israeli government's framing of "voluntary migration" or "voluntary emigration," without applying the ethnic cleansing label. This reflects a genuine ideological division over how to characterize the same announced policy.