Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the country intends to take control over even more of Gaza, expanding to 70% of the territory. He said Israel was tightening its grip on Hamas from every direction.
This is a reversal of President Trump’s ceasefire deal, which envisioned a gradual withdrawal of troops.
There’s still no international peacekeeping force in Gaza and no disarmament agreement with Hamas. Instead, Israeli assassinations of Hamas commanders have ramped up and Palestinian families say Israeli-backed local militias have pushed them to relocate closer to the coast.
Israel now controls two-thirds of Gaza, up from around 50% when the ceasefire was signed in October last year.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told an audience at a Thursday conference about the continued push, saying the next step is to expand that control to 70%.
Some members of his cabinet, like the defense minister, support displacing Palestinians from Gaza — or what they call “voluntary migration.”
This story was taken from an audio report by NPR’s Aya Batrawy.