Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israeli forces now control more than 60% of the Gaza Strip and would soon push that figure to 70%, opening the weekly Cabinet meeting in Jerusalem with one of his most explicit territorial readouts of the campaign against Hamas.
“In the Gaza Strip, we are squeezing Hamas from all sides. We currently hold over 60% of the Strip’s territory, and we will soon reach 70%. We are not allowing them to rearm or harm us, and we are also eliminating their senior commanders,” Netanyahu said, according to Israel National News.
On Lebanon, Netanyahu said the Israel Defense Forces had killed 350 militants “in the past week alone” and had captured the Beaufort Ridge, uncovering what he described as a “massive underground infrastructure” in the process. “We are completing the elimination of the terrorist villages adjacent to our border,” he said. “We are striking them very hard, and we know that Hezbollah is on the run. We will not allow firing at our territory or our communities, and we will act accordingly.”
Netanyahu also addressed Sunday’s deadly shooting attack near Kochav Yair in the Sharon region, in which an assailant killed an Israeli citizen and wounded others before being neutralised. He said an accomplice had been apprehended and praised local rapid-response teams and police officers for the response. “In Judea and Samaria and along the seam line, the IDF, ISA, and the Israel Police foil hundreds of attacks every year, though unfortunately not all of them,” he said.
The remarks come as Israel’s campaign in Gaza continues beyond the 20-month mark since the war that erupted after Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel, and as Israeli operations in southern Lebanon intensify after Hezbollah rejected the latest ceasefire framework on June 4. The IDF first reported capturing the Beaufort Castle area on May 31, and forces have also been operating across the West Bank with frequency since the start of the year.
Source: Ada Derana.
