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The United Nations estimates that 1.9 million Palestinians have been displaced.
After the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which left approximately 1,200 people dead and 251 taken hostage, Israel launched a massive military campaign in Gaza.
As of May 12, 2026, more than 72,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Palestine, and according to the United Nations, more than 1.9 million Palestinians have been displaced.
Israeli troops reportedly control approximately 60% of Gaza, but recent statements from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggest that the Israeli campaign in Gaza is not over yet.
70% target
Speaking at a forum in the occupied West Bank, he revealed that he had ordered the army to occupy 70% of the Gaza Strip, news agency EFE reports.
A person in the audience had reportedly urged him to take over the entire territory, according to the BBC.
“We are now in 60% of the territory of the Gaza Strip. We were at 50%, we moved to 60%,” Netanyahu said. He then outlined the next phase of the military operation.
“My directive is to move to, take it step by step, first of all, 70. Let’s start with that,” he added. This progressive expansion pushes past the limits originally established during the October 10 ceasefire, when Israel held about 52% of the territory.
According to EFE, Netanyahu previously defended these moves by focusing entirely on security. “We are subduing Hamas. We know exactly what our mission is, and we have only one mission: to ensure that Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel,” he stated in mid-May.
In an April 20 2026 Executive Summary on the question of Palestine, the United Nations estimated 1.9 million Palestinians to have been displaced.
Lines in the sand
For nearly eight months, the Israeli military has used invisible boundaries to manage the population. Troops drew a virtual yellow line that packed 2.1 million residents into less than half of the Strip. This marker never became a physical wall.
In late March, commanders added an orange line to the map. According to the non-governmental organization Gisha, this boundary blocks international groups from entering a 174-square-kilometre zone. NGOs cannot move there without direct permission from Israeli forces.
Hamas strongly condemned the shifting borders. The group accused Israel of violating the truce to permanently secure military dominance over the region.
Hamas officials stated that the actions constitute “an explicit and ongoing undermining of the ceasefire agreement, a serious violation of its provisions, and an exposed attempt to impose new facts on the ground by force, with the aim of entrenching military control over the Strip and undermining any real chance of stabilizing the situation or making de-escalation efforts succeed.”
Sources: Gisha, EFE, BBC, United Nations
