Gaza families flee Israeli 70% land grab
More than 150 families fled with what they could carry in May as Netanyahu orders IDF to expand control to 70% of Gaza.
Mohammed al-Jathbah was working to rebuild his makeshift shelter using stones, mud, and scrap metal less than one kilometre from the Yellow Line when he heard the announcement. He did not learn about the plan to seize 70% of Gaza from a news broadcast. He learned it the way most Gazans learn about their fate: through the sound of tanks moving closer.
On 28 May, Benjamin Netanyahu announced at a conference in an occupied West Bank settlement that he had ordered the Israeli military to increase its control of the Gaza Strip to 70% of the territory. The announcement confirmed what aid groups and residents had already witnessed for months, according to UN and humanitarian organizations: Israel has been systematically expanding its footprint beyond the ceasefire line agreed in October 2025, displacing families along the way.
The numbers tell part of the story. Israel currently controls approximately 64% of Gaza already, according to CNN. The October ceasefire set the demarcation line at roughly 53%. Israeli-backed armed militias are actively expelling residents from areas along the ceasefire line, telling them to vacate their homes or shelters.
The human cost tells the rest.
Between 16 and 17 May 2026, more than 150 families were displaced from eastern Khan Younis and eastern Gaza City due to tank movements and bombing. They fled with only what they could carry. Forty were identified as requiring emergency assistance. They joined the tens of thousands of others who have been pushed westward repeatedly since the ceasefire took effect on 10 October 2025.
Yahya Oweis, 28, knows what it means to rebuild only to be destroyed again. In January 2026, he learned that flooding was expected to hit his displacement camp. He watched the rains come, knowing his shelter, built from whatever materials he could find, would be destroyed. There was nowhere safe to go. There never is.
The ceasefire was supposed to prevent this. The Washington Accord, signed in October 2025, committed Israel to “not occupy or annex Gaza” and promised that “no one will be forced to leave.” Israel has violated every element of that commitment, according to the UN Special Coordinator Nickolay Mladenov, who warned the Security Council that the deteriorating status quo risks becoming permanent.
The Israeli government argues it is responding to Hamas’s refusal to disarm. While Hamas has indeed not disarmed, this does not justify the forced displacement of civilians or the annexation of territory in violation of international law. The right of an occupying power to permanently expand its controlled territory is not recognized under international humanitarian law, regardless of the actions of non-state actors.
The international community has not stopped it. The UK told the UN Security Council that Israel’s actions “violate the most basic standards of respect and dignity.” But words have not become action. Aid deliveries have fallen dramatically. Israel closed all crossings into Gaza on 28 February 2026, and weekly truck deliveries fell from 4,200 to 590. Israel blocked 37 international humanitarian organizations from operating in Gaza in February 2026.
From the declaration of the ceasefire through April 2026, Israel killed 736 people across Gaza, according to OCHA data. The total death toll since the start of the offensive stands at over 72,819, with more than 170,000 injured, according to medical sources in Gaza.
Al-Jathbah continues to rebuild. He has no other choice. But every stone he lays is a reminder that the world has failed to hold the line, and that the line itself keeps moving.
