Israeli army claims to hold ‘operational control’ of 65% of Gaza amid genocidal war

JERUSALEM /ISTANBUL

The Israeli army claimed Friday that it holds “operational control” of about 65% of the Gaza Strip’s territory.

A military statement said that the army managed to kill more than 100 Palestinian fighters in northern Gaza over the past week.

It alleged that its forces carried out more than 7,500 strikes targeting “infrastructure belonging to Palestinian factions in Gaza.”

Field reports, however, show that the majority of victims of these Israeli attacks were Palestinian civilians, including displaced persons and aid seekers.

The report comes a day after Israeli Channel 13 reported that Israeli Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a Cabinet meeting on Thursday evening that the army cannot control the two million Palestinians living in Gaza.

Despite international calls for a ceasefire, the Israeli army has pursued a genocidal war on Gaza, killing more than 57,200 Palestinians, most of them women and children, since October 2023.

Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.