Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday he had directed Israel's military to take more of Gaza, initially by seizing 70 per cent of the Palestinian territory.His comments, broadcast by Channel 12, come after Israel escalated its operations against the militant groups Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon in recent days.'We were at fifty, we moved to sixty. My directive is to move to - let's go step by step,' Netanyahu said during an interview at an event in a settlement in the occupied West Bank.'First of all, seventy. Let's start with that. We're pressing them (Hamas) from all sides. We'll deal with the remnants.'Under an October US-brokered deal that ended more than two years of fighting between Israel and Hamas, Israeli troops were meant to withdraw to a 'Yellow Line' in Gaza which left them in control of about 53 per cent of the enclave.The next phase of the fragile truce was meant to see a phased withdrawal of Israeli troops from much of the Strip, which has been reduced to ruins by Israel’s offensive, and the disarmament of Hamas.But talks on moving to the next stage of the deal have failed to yield progress. Instead, Israel has steadily expanded its hold over the enclave, with maps issued by the military in March showing an even bigger restricted area that cordons off around 64 per cent of Gaza's territory in total. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday he had directed Israel's military to take more of Gaza , initially by seizing 70 per cent of the Palestinian territory Emergency teams arrived at the scene following Israeli airstrikes on a residential building in the Rimal area of Gaza City on May 26 A fireball erupts following an Israeli strike near a tent encampment sheltering people displaced by war in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on March 25Netanyahu has repeatedly said in public remarks that the military controls more than 60 per cent of Gaza.He describes ​the territory Israel has seized in Gaza, Syria and Lebanon as 'buffer zones' that can stave off potential militant attacks following the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led assault that set off the Gaza war.But Palestinians view Israel's widening Gaza buffer zone as a part of a strategy to permanently displace them, pointing to remarks from senior ministers, including defence chief Israel Katz, saying they want to encourage 'voluntary migration' from Gaza.Netanyahu's directive comes as Israel escalates its attacks in Gaza that it says target senior Hamas leaders who were involved in the 2023 attacks. On Tuesday, Israel killed Hamas' armed wing chief, Mohammed Odeh, ten days after killing his predecessor.Gaza health officials say an additional strike on Wednesday night that Israel said targeted two Hamas leaders had killed at least 10 people, including five children, and wounded 18 others.That strike came as Palestinians were marking the Muslim holiday festival of Eid al-Adha, which many in Gaza celebrated by gathering together in tent encampments and in bombed-out buildings.Etidal Al-Za'im said she was with her family inside their tent marking the holiday when suddenly rubble from the strike targeting the building next to them fell on top of them.'We came out to the sound of a bang, we sat for an hour before we could come out through the (rubble) and find a way out of the tent,' she said.Israeli strikes have killed more than 900 people since the truce, health officials say, while Israel says four soldiers were killed by militants during the same period. Israel and Hamas remain deadlocked in talks to advance the US plan for Gaza that would see Israeli troops withdraw and Hamas disarm.Another man who witnessed Wednesday's Israeli strike, who identified himself as Abu Azam, said a 'person in Gaza has no safety at all'.'He could be hit in the street, he could be hit in the house, he could be hit in the hospital, he could be hit on his way to the market,' Abu Azam said.A statement from the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) and Shin Bet said: 'As part of the joint operation by the IDF and Shin Bet to eliminate the terrorist Mohammed Odeh, several buildings in the heart of Gaza City that served as a hideout for him were attacked, after months of intelligence surveillance in order to track his movements and the movements of his assistants in the organisation.'They added that they had also struck 'a nearby apartment belonging to a Hamas terrorist who raided on October 7 and was part of Odeh's circle of assistants', referring to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel.Israel's military on Wednesday declared a new swathe of southern ‌Lebanon as a combat zone and said residents in the area should move north, warning it would act 'with great force' against Lebanese armed group Hezbollah in the zone. The military's statement, posted on X, appeared to signal further escalation after more than 120 strikes on Tuesday hit Lebanon's south and east, despite a ceasefire announced ​on April 16. 'We advise residents of southern Lebanon to evacuate to the north of the Zahrani River, as all areas ​south of the river are considered a combat zone,' an Israeli military spokesperson posted on X. The Zahrani ⁠River runs east to west about 25 miles north of Israel's border with Lebanon, and the Lebanese territory south of it covers ​about 2,000 square kilometres.