Media: Israel seeks to control 75% of Gaza within two months

Israel plans to take control of three-quarters of the Gaza Strip within the next two months, according to reports in Israeli media, amid an intensifying military campaign against Hamas.

The operation, codenamed Gideon’s Chariots, has entered its second week and is aimed at dismantling the militant group and securing the release of hostages, Caliber.Az reports via Bloomberg.

Under the reported plan, the entire population of Gaza — estimated at around two million people — would be relocated to three designated zones that make up just 25% of the coastal enclave. These include Al-Mawasi in the south, central areas of the strip, and parts of Gaza City in the north. The Gaza Strip measures only 226 square kilometres (approximately 141 square miles).

While the Israeli military has not confirmed the relocation strategy, it said on May 25 that its forces currently hold around 40% of the territory.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to bring all of Gaza under Israeli control but has not outlined any concrete proposals for post-conflict governance. “This is about defeating Hamas and bringing the hostages home,” he said.

US President Donald Trump weighed in on the conflict over the weekend, calling for a swift end to the fighting. “We’ve been talking to Israel, and we want to see if we can stop that whole situation as quickly as possible,” he told reporters.

The military campaign has drawn increasing international concern over humanitarian conditions inside Gaza. Since the collapse of a ceasefire in March, Israel had blocked aid into the territory, raising alarm about starvation risks among civilians. A new aid delivery system, backed by the United States, is due to start this week and aims to reach over one million Palestinians.

However, the rollout has been overshadowed by the resignation of Jake Wood, executive director of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a Swiss-based aid group supported by the US and Israel. Wood said the plan could not be implemented without compromising the humanitarian principles of “humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence,” which he refused to abandon.

Despite the leadership change, the foundation said its aid trucks were “loaded and ready to go” and that distributions would begin on May 26.

The war began when Hamas launched a surprise attack on southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking approximately 250 hostages. In response, Israel has carried out a wide-scale offensive that the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says has killed more than 53,000 people. Israel reports that more than 400 of its soldiers have died in the fighting.

Efforts by the United States, Qatar and Egypt to broker a new ceasefire and hostage exchange have so far failed.

By Aghakazim Guliyev