Netanyahu Orders IDF to Seize 70% of Gaza
‘A death sentence for people who physically have no place to go.’
by Sophia Sheera
29 May 2026
Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the Israeli army to seize 70% of the Gaza Strip.
Speaking from a conference in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, the Israeli prime minister laid out his plans to take control of more than two-thirds of Gaza, in blatant violation of last year’s US-brokered ‘ceasefire’.
Defence minister Israel Katz said his government’s ultimate aim is for a mass exodus of Palestinians from Gaza by “voluntary migration”. In reality, the plan amounts to ethnic cleansing by making life in Gaza so intolerable that Palestinians are forced to leave.
The ‘ceasefire’ agreement made in October 2025 saw Israeli troops withdraw to a demarcation line, which left Israel in complete control of 53% of Gaza. Since then, the Israeli army has steadily advanced further into the Strip, occupying yet more territory, controlling entry and exit points and shooting at anyone perceived as a threat.
Since the US-brokered deal came into effect, Israel has violated the ceasefire thousands of times with near-daily attacks, killing more than 900 Palestinians.
If Israel now takes control of 70% of the coastal enclave, surviving Palestinians will be crammed into less than a third of the territory they lived in before October 2023.
“The conditions [in Gaza] are already appalling,” said Muhammed Shehada, a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. “It is the single most overcrowded place on the face of the planet.
“Every square metre has another displaced family, another makeshift tent, or some sort of improvised shelter on it. So it would be a death sentence for a lot of people who physically have no place to go.”
Netanyahu’s plans to seize the majority of Gaza fit within a wider Greater Israel project that would see Israeli borders expand into Syria and Lebanon. In April, Israel’s finance minister Bezalel Smotrich declared expansionism as the “final political leg” of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.
Since October 2023, at least 72,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza and more than 172,000 injured.
Sophia Sheera is a journalist in Novara Media’s social media team.