UN says all of Gaza must be for Palestinians after Netanyahu orders further occupation

The UN rebuked Israel on Friday after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered his military to occupy 70% of Gaza, saying the entirety of the Palestinian territory must be for Palestinians.

"One hundred percent of Gaza should be for the Palestinian people," spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters at the UN's New York headquarters. "That's what we want to see, and we've been calling on Israel to pull back from its occupation from the so-called yellow line, and that will continue to be our position."

Netanyahu said Thursday that Israel currently controls 60% of the Gaza Strip and signaled plans to expand it further to 70%. He did not elaborate on how such plans would be implemented.

The Israeli army announced in October last year that it controlled 53% of the Gaza Strip after redeploying to the so-called “yellow line” under the first phase of US President Donald Trump’s plan to end the war in Gaza.

The arrangement envisioned further Israeli withdrawals under the second phase, launched in January. The “yellow line” refers to a temporary separation zone in eastern Gaza dividing areas under Israeli military control from areas where Palestinians are allowed to remain.

But Palestinian sources say that the boundary has been steadily pushed westward in recent months.

Bassem Naim, a senior Hamas official, told Anadolu that Israel has shifted the line by an additional 8% to 9% into Gaza’s territory, raising the area under Israeli control to more than 60%.