IDF controls 60% of Gaza, another invasion by Hamas ‘no longer possible,’ says senior officer

The Israeli military now controls more than 60% of the Gaza Strip’s territory, a senior officer says, well beyond the portion of the enclave that Israel was allowed to temporarily continue holding as part of an October 2025 ceasefire deal with Hamas.

“We are standing here [near] the northern Gaza Strip, looking at everything we have achieved — and we have achieved a great deal. More than 60% of the Strip is in our hands,” said Central Command chief Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth during a handover ceremony yesterday for the commander of the 99th Division, whose forces operated in the Strip in recent years.

“There is a security zone for the communities near the Gaza border, held by two divisions and the IDF’s finest soldiers. The threat of an invasion, as occurred nearly three years ago, is no longer possible,” he says.

Bluth adds, however, that “Hamas still controls [its portion of the Strip] and the murderous organization retains residual capabilities, and its vision of destroying Israel has not changed.”

In May, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he ordered the IDF to take control of 70% of the Gaza Strip. At the start of the truce, the military controlled around 53% of the war-torn Palestinian enclave, with Hamas controlling the other 47% where nearly all of the Strip’s two million residents live.