Netanyahu orders the IDF to take control of 70% of the Gaza Strip

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered his armed forces to take control of 70% of the Gaza Strip, contrary to the ceasefire agreements in place since last October. "We are currently suffocating Hamas," he said during a press conference broadcast by Israeli broadcaster Channel 12, while at an Israeli settlement in the West Bank. "We now control 60 per cent of the territory of the Strip," he added, "we were at 50 per cent, we have gone to 60 per cent, my directive is to get to 70 per cent.

In the past two days, sixteen Palestinians were killed in Gaza and 39 others were injured and transported to hospital. This was reported by the Gaza Ministry of Health. This brings to 72,819 the number of dead since the beginning of the war between Israel and Gaza, which began with the terrorist attack on 7 October 2023, while the number of wounded would now be 172,894. Growing numbers for a massacre that knows no end.

The Israel Defence Forces meanwhile continue to target the Hamas leadership. Yesterday they announced that they had killed, in Khan Yunis, Ihab Khrizim, the head of a central funds transfer network of the terrorist organisation. Also killed in the attack was Mohammed al-Habash, a unit commander of the Hamas production headquarters, who was involved in the manufacture of weapons. Hamas, for its part, confirmed the killing of the deputy commander of the Gaza City brigade, Imad Aslim, whom Israel had announced on Tuesday that it had hit during a raid also targeting Izz ad-Din Beck, commander of the Northern Gaza brigade.

Against the extremism of the Israeli settlers in the West Bank, the Council of the European Union once again took action. It adopted new sanctions against three individuals and four organisations supporting them, following a decision reached at the Foreign Affairs Council in early May. All of them were included in the list of EU sanctions for "serious and systematic human rights violations against Palestinians in the West Bank, including violation of the right of all to enjoy the highest standard of physical and mental integrity, the right to property, the right to private and family life, freedom of religion or belief and the right to education". With these new designations, the total number of those sanctioned under this regime rises to 136 natural and legal persons and 41 entities.

The new designations include the Nachala Settlement Movement and its director Daniella Weiss, which encourages the forced displacement of Palestinians, whose outposts, largely built on private Palestinian land, obstruct access to Palestinian agricultural and grazing land. Also hit were the Israeli NGO Regavim and its director Meir Deutsch, who lobby for the demolition of Palestinian property, also targeting an EU-funded Palestinian primary school in the village of Jabbet al Dhib, near Bethlehem. Other activities also sanctioned include the NGO Hashomer Yosh with its president Avichai Suissa, and the Amana cooperative association of the settler movement Gush Emunim, all because of their support for violent settlements in the West Bank.