THE MIND OF THE PEOPLE – The United Nations (UN) has strongly criticized Israel’s unilateral plan to expand its military control area within the Gaza Strip by up to 70 percent.
Quoting Anadolu, the world’s highest authority reiterated its legal position that the entire sovereign territory of Palestine must be returned in its entirety to the Palestinian people without exception.
UN spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said at UN headquarters in New York that his party rejected any form of annexation or annexation of new territories that worsened the humanitarian crisis in the besieged enclave.
The UN consistently continues to urge the Israeli military to immediately withdraw all its troops from the occupation perimeter along the temporary boundary zone, or what is widely known internationally as the ‘yellow line’.
“One hundred percent of Gaza should belong to the Palestinian people. That is what we want to see, and we have called on Israel to withdraw from its occupation along the so-called yellow line. That will continue to be our permanent position,” Dujarric said.
Crucial Points of Shifting Territorial Boundaries in the Gaza Strip
Diplomatic criticism from the UN emerged following a series of political statements and military tactical movements in the field over the past few months.
This tension was triggered by the expansionist claims of Israeli PM, Benjamin Netanyahu, who openly announced that his country now controls around 60 percent of the Gaza Strip and signaled his ambition to expand his grip to reach 70 percent.
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This movement is closely related to the definitive function of the “yellow line” which refers to the temporary separation zone on the eastern side of Gaza to demarcate the area under full Israeli military control with the domestic zone still inhabited by Palestinian civilians.
However, field authorities from local Palestinian sources protested because the military demarcation boundary continued to shift aggressively towards the west, which meant the draft took up more of the land of the residents’ draft settlements.
Map of Israeli Military Control in the Gaza Territory
In October last year, the Israeli military redeployed troops to the ‘yellow line’ area as an implementation of the first phase of Donald Trump’s plan, where the estimated area under control reached 53 percent of Gaza.
Entering January 2026, the actual agenda is to enter the planned troop reduction phase, which is the schedule for further withdrawal of Israeli troops in the second phase, but the realization in the field is experiencing obstacles.
In the current conditions in May 2026, Israel has controlled more than 60 percent of the Gaza area, with Netanyahu claiming the 60 percent limit and Hamas draft official, Bassem Naim, confirming the military line has shifted draft 8 to 9 percent to the west.
In the future, Israel’s short-term target is to control up to 70 percent of the Gaza area, which is implied by the Israeli government’s continued expansion plans without detailing the technical methods of implementation to the public.***
