The Israeli military now controls 59 percent of the Gaza Strip, expanding its hold despite a US-brokered ceasefire, Army Radio reported Sunday. Senior officers are pressing political leaders to restart full-scale operations, arguing this is the optimal moment to defeat Hamas. The policy says one thing. The reality says another.
Operational plans for a renewed offensive are complete, Army Radio said. A final decision now rests with Israel’s political leadership. Brigades are already moving.
The military has drawn down forces in southern Lebanon and redeployed them to Gaza and the occupied West Bank. Attacks have increased lately, the broadcaster added, without specifying numbers. The so-called “Yellow Line” tells the story.
When the ceasefire took hold in October, Israeli forces controlled roughly half of Gaza. That line was supposed to recede. Instead, it has crept forward steadily.
Palestinians have been pushed into about 40 percent of the enclave. Israeli troops remain stationed across the remaining 60 percent in the south, north, and east. What this actually means for your family.
For the 2.3 million people trapped in Gaza, the expanding buffer zone translates into less land for shelter, less access to farmland, and more displacement. Entire neighborhoods in northern Gaza have been erased. Families who fled south now find the south shrinking too.
The ceasefire agreement required Israel to allow up to 600 aid trucks daily — food, fuel, medical supplies, shelter materials, commercial goods. Gaza authorities say Israeli restrictions have kept the average at just over 200 trucks. That is one-third of what was promised.
Hospitals run on generator fumes. Bakeries close when flour runs out. Both sides claim victory.
Here are the numbers. Since October 2023, Israeli forces have killed more than 72,000 Palestinians, according to the Palestinian health ministry. Thousands more remain missing, buried beneath rubble.
The ministry says at least 832 Palestinians have been killed in near-daily shelling since the ceasefire began — violations of an agreement meant to stop the killing. The United States brokered the ceasefire with the stated goal of ending what Middle East Eye described as Israel’s two-year genocide. The agreement’s later phases envisaged a gradual Israeli withdrawal from all of Gaza.
That withdrawal has not happened. Instead, the military footprint has grown. Behind the diplomatic language lies a strategic calculation.
Senior military officials, cited by Army Radio, argue that now is the optimal moment to defeat Hamas. They see a weakened adversary, disrupted supply lines, and international attention diverted elsewhere. The operational plans are ready.
The political green light is the missing piece. The international response has been muted. The Biden administration, which helped negotiate the ceasefire, has not publicly commented on the expanded territorial control.
European governments have issued statements urging restraint but taken no concrete action. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has warned repeatedly that humanitarian conditions are. Aid workers describe a landscape of desperation. “We are seeing levels of acute malnutrition we have not seen anywhere in the world,” Cindy McCain, executive director of the World Food Programme, told CNN in March.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) reported in March that 1.1 million people in Gaza — half the population — face food insecurity. The expansion of the Yellow Line carries legal implications. Under international humanitarian law, an occupying power cannot permanently alter the territory it occupies.
The Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits the transfer of an occupying power’s civilian population into occupied territory and the destruction of property unless militarily necessary. Legal scholars at the International Court of Justice have already raised concerns about Israel’s actions in a case brought by South Africa alleging genocide. The human cost defies abstraction.
In Rafah, where more than a million people once sought shelter, entire blocks have been reduced to rubble. Satellite imagery analyzed by the UN Satellite Centre shows that 35 percent of all buildings in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed. That figure rises to over 70 percent in northern Gaza.
The military’s push to restart fighting comes as domestic pressure mounts on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Families of hostages still held in Gaza demand a deal. Far-right coalition partners demand total victory.
Netanyahu navigates between them, his political survival tied to the war’s trajectory. The hostages remain a central, agonizing variable. Hamas and other armed groups seized around 250 people during the October 7, 2023 attack that killed roughly 1,200 Israelis.
About 100 hostages are believed to remain in Gaza, though Israeli intelligence estimates that at least a third are dead. Their families protest weekly, demanding the government prioritize their return over military objectives. Why It Matters: A full-scale resumption of the war would likely collapse what remains of the humanitarian infrastructure in Gaza, trigger a new wave of civilian casualties, and draw regional actors like Hezbollah and Iran-backed militias back into active confrontation.
For the United States, it would test the limits of its diplomatic influence and its willingness to restrain an ally. For ordinary families in Gaza, it would mean the difference between a tent and nothing at all. The economic toll extends beyond Gaza’s borders.
Egypt, which shares the Rafah crossing, has struggled to manage the spillover of displaced Palestinians and the disruption of trade. Jordan has warned that regional instability threatens its own security. The International Monetary Fund cut growth forecasts for the Middle East and North Africa in April, citing the conflict as a primary drag.
The ceasefire’s collapse would also scramble US domestic politics. President Joe Biden faces pressure from progressive Democrats to condition military aid to Israel. Republican leaders have urged even stronger support.
The issue cuts across party lines in ways that could shape the 2026 midterm elections. What comes next is uncertain but framed by clear deadlines. Israeli political leaders must decide whether to authorize the operational plans already drawn up.
The next phase of the ceasefire agreement, if it holds, would require further Israeli withdrawals and a surge in aid deliveries. Neither appears imminent. Diplomats from Qatar and Egypt continue shuttle mediation, but their leverage is limited without US pressure.
Key Takeaways: - Israeli forces now control 59 percent of Gaza, up from roughly half when the October ceasefire began, according to Army Radio. - Military officials have completed operational plans for a renewed offensive and are pressing political leaders to approve them. - Aid deliveries average just over 200 trucks daily, far below the 600-truck target set by the ceasefire agreement. The next weeks will be decisive. If political leaders authorize the military plans, the war resumes on a scale that could dwarf previous phases.
If the ceasefire holds, the challenge becomes reversing the territorial expansion and delivering aid at the levels promised. Either path runs through the same checkpoint: whether the United States chooses to enforce the agreement it helped broker. Watch for statements from the White House, troop movements along the Yellow Line, and the daily aid truck count — each a signal of which direction Gaza is heading.
Key Takeaways
— Israeli forces now control 59 percent of Gaza, up from roughly half when the October ceasefire began, according to Army Radio.
— Military officials have completed operational plans for a renewed offensive and are pressing political leaders to approve them.
— Aid deliveries average just over 200 trucks daily, far below the 600-truck target set by the ceasefire agreement.
— At least 832 Palestinians have been killed in ceasefire violations since October, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Source: Middle East Eye
