Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Thursday that he has ordered the military to extend Israel's control over the Gaza Strip to 70 percent of the territory, up from the roughly 60 percent Israeli forces already hold. The declaration, made at a conference in an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank, represents a direct violation of the US-brokered ceasefire agreement reached in October 2025, which established a demarcation line — known as the "yellow line" — giving Israel control of approximately 53 percent of the coastal enclave. "We are currently squeezing Hamas," Netanyahu said. "We now control 60% of the territory in the strip. My directive is to move to 70%." An audience member shouted "100", prompting Netanyahu to add: "Let's go step by step. First 70%."

The October 2025 ceasefire, which also received the backing of a UN Security Council resolution, was intended as a framework for further negotiations, including the eventual disarmament of Hamas and withdrawal of Israeli forces. Those talks have stalled. Since the truce took effect, Israeli forces have continued to conduct airstrikes across western Gaza and advance positions beyond the yellow line, while Israeli-backed armed militias have been telling Palestinian residents living near the ceasefire boundary to evacuate their homes. Residents describe armed men arriving in the afternoon and giving families just hours to pack their belongings and leave. More than 900 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since the ceasefire began, according to reporting drawing on Gaza's Hamas-run Health Ministry, whose figures the United Nations considers reliable.

Defence Minister Israel Katz indicated the government's long-term ambition is for large numbers of Palestinians to leave Gaza through what he described as "voluntary migration" — a characterisation human rights organisations reject, arguing it amounts to a plan for ethnic cleansing by making life inside Gaza unliveable. The Trump administration's own peace framework stated explicitly that "no one will be forced to leave Gaza" and that those who wished to leave would be free to return. Analysts say Netanyahu's announcement effectively nullifies that framework. Muhammad Shehada, a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said: "Netanyahu is now declaring the whole Trump deal, the framework for Gaza, to be null and void. It would be a death sentence for a lot of people who physically have no place to go."

The humanitarian stakes are severe. Gaza's 2.2 million surviving residents are already confined to what observers describe as the most overcrowded territory on earth, with Israeli forces having systematically destroyed buildings throughout the zones they control. Extending military control to 70 percent would compress the entire civilian population into less than a third of an already devastated strip. A confidential UN briefing for heads of humanitarian agencies, reviewed by journalists, documented daily tank advances near the yellow line in the northern district of Jabalia, with drones targeting movement near the boundary. Israeli analyst Gershon Baskin, who has participated in Israeli-Palestinian backchannel negotiations, said he believes the original ceasefire framework has effectively collapsed and that the US may now shift toward a fallback plan focused on reconstruction in Israeli-controlled areas, with movement into those zones restricted to Palestinians who pass vetting for alleged links to Hamas.