Unrelenting, UN Condemns Israel's Plan to Expand Control of Gaza Strip

The condition of Gaza. (DOK UN News)

JAKARTA - The United Nations on Friday condemned Israel's plan to expand its territory in the Gaza Strip to 70 percent and confirmed that all Palestinian territories must belong to the Palestinian people.

"One hundred percent of Gaza must belong to the Palestinian people," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters at the UN headquarters in New York.

He said the UN continued to call for Israel to withdraw from the occupied territories along what it called the "yellow line".

"That is what we would like to see, and we have called on Israel to withdraw from its occupation along the so-called yellow line, and that will continue to be our position," Dujarric said.

The statement was made after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country currently controls about 60 percent of the Gaza Strip.

Netanyahu also hinted at plans to expand the territory under Israeli control to 70 percent, though he did not explain how the move would be carried out.

The Israeli military said in October last year that it had seized 53 percent of Gaza after redeploying troops to an area known as the "yellow line".

The move is part of the first phase of US President Donald Trump's plan to end the war in Gaza.

The plan includes the further withdrawal of Israeli troops in a second phase that began in January.

The "yellow line" refers to a temporary separation zone in eastern Gaza that limits the area under Israeli military control and the area that Palestinians can still inhabit.

However, Palestinian sources say the border has continued to shift westwards in recent months.

Senior Hamas official Bassem Naim told Anadolu that Israel had shifted the line further, about 8 to 9 percent, into Gaza territory.

According to Naim, this step makes the area under Israeli control now reaches more than 60 percent of the Gaza Strip.