May 30, 2026 | 06:14 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday, May 28, 2026, that Israel currently controls 60 percent of the Gaza Strip. As reported by Israel's Channel 12 and cited by the Turkish news agency Yeni Safak, he has instructed to expand that figure to 70 percent.Netanyahu made the remarks during a seminar in the Jordan Valley but did not elaborate on how the plan would be implemented.The Israeli military announced in October that they control 53 percent of the area after relocating to the 'yellow line' under the first phase of former US President Donald Trump's plan to end the conflict.The arrangement necessitates further Israeli military withdrawal under the second phase launched in January, although Palestinian sources say the border has continued to be pushed westward in recent months.Humanitarian ImpactBassem Naim, a senior Hamas official, told Anadolu that Israel has shifted an additional 8-9 percent of the line into Gaza territory, reducing the space available for Palestinians to about 38 percent of the area.Israel launched a genocidal war in the Gaza Strip in October 2023, killing over 72,000 Palestinian civilians and injuring more than 172,000 others, the majority of whom were women and children, according to Palestinian data.Read: UAE 'Denies Reports' of Secret Visit by Israel's NetanyahuClick here to get the latest news updates from Tempo on Google News
