{"id":6947,"date":"2026-05-29T14:35:42","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T14:35:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/05\/29\/israeli-plan-to-extend-control-in-gaza-provokes-german-concern\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T14:35:42","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T14:35:42","slug":"israeli-plan-to-extend-control-in-gaza-provokes-german-concern","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/05\/29\/israeli-plan-to-extend-control-in-gaza-provokes-german-concern\/","title":{"rendered":"Israeli plan to extend control in Gaza provokes German concern"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><em>Comments mark a shift in Berlin\u2019s stance towards one of its key allies, of which it has long been a strong supporter.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\">\n<p>The German government has expressed concern over Israeli plans to extend its military control of Gaza.<\/p>\n<p>A spokesperson for the German Foreign Office said on Friday that Berlin opposes any permanent division of Gaza. The comment came in response to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s order to the Israeli military to increase <a href=\"http:\/\/aels-netanyahu-directs-army-to-seize-70-percent-of-gaza-strip\">control<\/a> in the enclave to 70 percent.<\/p>\n<section>\n<h2>Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n<p><span>list of 3 items<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>list 1 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/video\/newsfeed\/2026\/5\/28\/netanyahu-orders-israeli-army-to-seize-70-percent-of-gaza\">Netanyahu orders Israeli army to seize 70 percent of Gaza<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 2 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/economy\/2026\/5\/29\/gaza-parents-brave-dental-dilemma-costly-treatment-or-food-on-the-table\">Gaza parents brave dental dilemma: Costly treatment or food on the table?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 3 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/5\/29\/dangerous-colonial-occupation-israels-digital-west-bank-land-register\">\u2018Dangerous colonial occupation\u2019: Israel\u2019s digital West Bank land register<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n<p>The expansion of Israeli occupation raises questions over the durability of the nominal <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2025\/11\/11\/how-many-times-has-israel-violated-the-gaza-ceasefire-here-are-the-numbers\">\u201cceasefire\u201d<\/a> brokered by the United States and regional countries, including Qatar and Turkiye, in October.<\/p>\n<p>That deal required the Israeli military to pull back so it controlled about half of Gaza. However, it has steadily expanded control as it continues to fight Hamas, and fears are growing of a return to full-scale war.<\/p>\n<p>An expansion of Israeli control would also worsen conditions for Gaza\u2019s 2.3 million people already squeezed into about 35 percent of the small enclave.<\/p>\n<p>Germany is one of Israel\u2019s closest allies and its second-largest weapons supplier after the US.<\/p>\n<p>However, in recent months Berlin has begun criticising some Israeli actions, including its annexation of more territory in the occupied West Bank, and the implementation of the death penalty <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/opinions\/2026\/4\/2\/israels-death-penalty-law-is-not-about-executing-palestinians\">solely for Palestinians<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"fears-of-annexation\">Fears of annexation<\/h2>\n<p>Speaking on Thursday, Netanyahu suggested Israel might even seize more than 70 percent of Gaza.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were at fifty, we moved to sixty,\u201d Netanyahu said as he explained that he has now ordered the military to increase control to 70 percent.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s start with that,\u201d he added. \u201cWe\u2019re pressing them [Hamas] from all sides. We\u2019ll deal with the remnants.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Israel agreed to withdraw its troops to behind the \u2018Yellow Line\u2019 artificial border as the ceasefire came into effect in October, leaving it occupying about 53 percent of Gaza.<\/p>\n<p>The steady expansion of Israeli control since, in violation of the terms of the ceasefire, has raised Palestinian fears that Israel aims to permanently annex large parts of the enclave. Some Israeli officials have suggested they hope to permanently expel Palestinians.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this week, Defence Minister Israel Katz said efforts were underway to encourage \u201cvoluntary emigration\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Critics argue that the term \u201cvoluntary\u201d is a euphemism, following nearly three years of genocide when most of Gaza\u2019s infrastructure has been destroyed, leaving the territory uninhabitable.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"0\" data-end=\"120\">Gareth Dale from Brunel University told Al Jazeera that Netanyahu\u2019s plans to seize more of Gaza are \u201can egregious breach of the terms of the ceasefire\u201d, but are driven by his political concerns ahead of parliamentary elections in October.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"0\" data-end=\"120\">\u201cFor the women, men and children of Gaza, already subjected to deliberately inflicted hunger, thirst and disease, on top of continued bombing by the IDF, it represents a renewed round of suffering,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>In a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/4\/20\/report-finds-gaza-needs-more-than-71bn-in-next-decade-for-recovery\">report<\/a> published last month, both the United Nations and European Union said Israel\u2019s war on Gaza has had a \u201ccatastrophic impact on human development\u201d. The report estimated that more than $70bn was needed over the next decade for recovery and reconstruction.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"0\" data-end=\"120\">More than 50 percent of hospitals in the territory are non-functional, while nearly all schools have been destroyed or damaged.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"122\" data-end=\"399\">On Friday, Israel said it had killed senior Hamas commander Imad Hassan Hussein Aslim and a colleague in a strike in Gaza earlier in the week. Hamas has not commented.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Comments mark a shift in Berlin\u2019s stance towards one of its key allies, of which it has long been a strong supporter. The German government has expressed concern over Israeli plans to extend its military control of Gaza. A spokesperson for the German Foreign Office said on Friday that Berlin opposes any permanent division of &#8230; <a title=\"Israeli plan to extend control in Gaza provokes German concern\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/05\/29\/israeli-plan-to-extend-control-in-gaza-provokes-german-concern\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Israeli plan to extend control in Gaza provokes German concern\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6948,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}