Netanyahu admits Israel taking more territory in Gaza: ‘We are tightening our grip on Hamas’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu admits that Israel has been expanding the territory it controls in the Gaza Strip.

“In Gaza now we already control not 50 percent — but 60 percent,” he says.

Maps issued by Israel in March showed a new restricted area beyond the 53% of Gaza that Israel controlled after the ceasefire brokered by US President Donald Trump. The restricted area, marked on the maps with an orange line, makes up an estimated 11% of Gaza’s territory beyond the “Yellow Line” demarcating the part of Gaza occupied by Israeli troops since the October ceasefire. The areas cordon off nearly two-thirds of Gaza’s territory in total.

“We are tightening our grip on Hamas,” Netanyahu continues. “We know exactly what our mission is, and our mission is one thing only — to ensure that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel.”

He does not pledge that Hamas will be destroyed as a military and governing organization, as he has many times since October 7, 2023.

Addressing the killing of Hamas military chief Izz al-Din al-Haddad on Friday, Netanyahu says that he promised “that all the architects of the massacre and all the architects of the kidnappings would be eliminated, every last one of them, and we are getting very close to completing that mission as well.”