Netanyahu Says IDF Now Controls 60% of Gaza as Israel Tightens Grip on Hamas

by Emmitt Barry, Worthy News Washington D.C. Bureau Chief

(Worthy News) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israeli forces now control roughly 60% of the Gaza Strip, marking a significant expansion of Israel’s security hold inside the enclave months after the U.S.-brokered ceasefire took effect.

“We are no longer holding 50%, but already 60%,” Netanyahu told reporters at a Cabinet meeting in Jerusalem. “We have Hamas in our grip.”

Under the first phase of the Oct. 10, 2025, ceasefire, the Israel Defense Forces was granted control of 53% of Gaza’s territory east of the Yellow Line. But Israeli forces have since expanded their security zones after Hamas failed to disarm under Washington’s peace plan, according to Israel Hayom, which reported that the move added about 34 square kilometers — just over 13 square miles — to areas under IDF control.

Netanyahu said Israel’s mission remains unchanged: to ensure Gaza can never again be used as a launching pad for terror against the Jewish state.

“We know exactly what our mission is,” he said. “To ensure that Gaza will never again pose a threat to Israel.”

The remarks came two days after Israel confirmed it had killed Izz al-Din al-Haddad, the head of Hamas’s military wing in Gaza, in a targeted airstrike in Gaza City. Israeli officials said Haddad was among the senior Hamas figures responsible for the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre and had used Israeli hostages as human shields.

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