Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the Israeli army on Wednesday to seize and control approximately 70 percent of the Gaza Strip, a directive that directly violates the fragile ceasefire framework negotiated over months of international mediation and threatens to collapse US-backed truce talks before they deliver a final agreement.
The announcement, confirmed by three Israeli officials speaking on condition of anonymity, marks the most significant breach of the ceasefire since it took effect in March. It came just hours after Hamas publicly rejected the latest proposal from Qatari and Egyptian mediators, citing Israel’s refusal to commit to a permanent end to hostilities.
Under the directive, Israeli forces would establish permanent administrative control over the Jordan River border area, the Philadelphi Corridor along Gaza’s southern edge, and a newly declared “security buffer zone” extending up to 1.5 kilometres into Gaza’s interior along the entire length of the border. Civilian populations in affected areas would be ordered to relocate northward — a directive the UN has called “functionally impossible” given the already overcrowded conditions in northern Gaza.
The ceasefire framework, brokered by Qatar and Egypt with active US involvement, had been holding on a fragile basis since March, but has unravelled sharply in the past 72 hours. On Tuesday, a senior Hamas political official said the group would not agree to any extension of the truce without a binding commitment from Israel to withdraw forces entirely from Gaza and release the remaining hostages in a single phase. Israel has refused, insisting on a phased approach tied to full disarmament of Hamas.
White House officials said President Trump had been briefed on the Netanyahu directive and was “deeply concerned.” A statement from the National Security Council said the US was “engaged at the highest levels” to prevent further escalation. However, US officials privately acknowledged that Trump’s influence over Netanyahu has diminished sharply since the prime minister’s coalition government survived a parliamentary confidence vote last week.
Israeli strikes on Gaza overnight killed at least 18 people, including three children, according to the Hamas-run Civil Defense agency. An Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon killed two paramedics and wounded four others near the town of Tyre. The IDF said it was reviewing the incident.
In Tehran, Iranian state media reported that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had placed two additional ballistic missile brigades on high alert in what officials described as a “deterrence reinforcement” following the Gaza announcement. Iran’s UN ambassador sent an emergency letter to the Security Council calling for an immediate session on the Gaza seizure order.
Qatar and Egypt, the two main ceasefire guarantors, issued a joint statement calling Netanyahu’s order “a grave and dangerous escalation that destroys the basis for continued negotiations.” Neither country has suspended its mediation role, but senior officials from both governments told Reuters they had “virtually halted” contact with Israel’s negotiating team pending a reversal of the order.
Oil markets reacted sharply. Brent crude rose 1.8 percent to above $97 a barrel on fears that the Gaza escalation could spill into broader regional confrontation involving Iran and Lebanese Hezbollah. The Pentagon said the USS Truman carrier group was repositioning eastward in the eastern Mediterranean — not a dramatic move but one described by a US defence official as “prudent positioning.”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on the Security Council to act “without delay.” A vote on a draft resolution demanding Israel rescind the seizure order is expected on Thursday. The US, Israel’s closest ally, has historically vetoed such measures.
Netanyahu, in a recorded statement, said the seizure was “a temporary operational measure to prevent terrorism” and that Israel remained committed to the overall ceasefire framework. His office later clarified that “temporary” in this context meant “until permanent security arrangements are in place” — language critics said effectively amounts to an open-ended occupation.
Meanwhile, in a related development, the US and Iran reached a tentative agreement on a 60-day extension of their own bilateral truce, covering the nuclear-related sanctions pause and the Hormuz de-escalation framework, officials from both countries confirmed. Trump must still formally approve the extension. A senior Iranian official said the extension was “conditional on the Hormuz corridor remaining open” — a condition now in doubt given the Gaza escalation.
The parallel tracks — US-Iran nuclear truce and Gaza ceasefire — had been viewed by mediators as mutually reinforcing. The collapse of one puts pressure on the other. Oman and Qatar, who have simultaneously mediated both tracks, are now facing what one Arab diplomat described as “the most complex juggling act in the region’s recent history.”