Israeli moves expand control in Gaza and West Bank, reports say
New settlement plans, land designations and military actions are tightening Israeli control over parts of Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
By Lucas Ferreira · Science & Environment Writer
4 min read
Israeli officials and forces have advanced steps that would extend Israeli control in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, according to Al Jazeera, Palestinian agencies and UN bodies. The reported moves include new Gaza settlement plans, expanded restricted areas inside the enclave and West Bank land measures tied to settlement growth.
Al Jazeera reported that Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said the Settlement Administration he leads had finished plans for three settlements in northern Gaza and urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to approve them. Netanyahu separately said Israel was moving toward control of 70 percent of Gaza, according to Al Jazeera.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Israeli forces have also shifted cement markers along the “Yellow Line” inside Gaza, widening the area under Israeli control. OCHA said 65 percent of Gaza is now assessed as access-restricted.
West Bank land measures and mosque work
In Hebron, Israeli forces brought heavy equipment into the Ibrahimi Mosque and began installing steel beams over its courtyard, Al Jazeera reported. The mosque’s director said the work would alter the historic character of the site, and Al Jazeera reported that Israeli authorities had prevented the Muslim call to prayer there for a week and a half.
Near Sinjil, north of Ramallah, Israeli authorities declared 465 dunums, or 0.465 square kilometers, as state land, according to Al Jazeera. The Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission said the designation was meant to retroactively authorize the Givat Haroeh outpost and connect it with nearby settlements along Route 60.
Wafa and local activist networks reported that settlers cut new bypass roads through private Palestinian land near Kobar and Beitillu. They also reported fencing erected for a new outpost between al-Mazraa ash-Sharqiya and Kafr Malek.
UN inquiry cites child deaths
The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry said on June 23 that Israeli forces had deliberately targeted and killed Palestinian children, citing at least 20,179 deaths between October 2023 and October 2025. The commission said those deaths accounted for about 30 percent of all people killed in that period and said the deliberate killing of children was an element in establishing genocidal intent. Israel rejected the report as a “libelous sham,” according to Al Jazeera.
Israeli rights group B’Tselem said Israeli forces had killed 241 Palestinian children and teenagers in the occupied West Bank since October 2023. The group described the deaths as the result of a policy that permits killings with little accountability, according to Al Jazeera.
Palestinian officials and medical sources reported further deaths in recent days. Al Jazeera said 15-year-old Ahmad Jawad Jaber was shot in the head and chest during an Israeli raid in el-Bireh on June 29 and died en route to hospital. In Gaza, medical sources and Wafa reported the deaths of 13-year-old Eileen al-Farra, eight-year-old Malik Abu Shaweesh, and Diana Abu Daraz, 23, with her infant daughter Suwar in a strike on a tent in al-Mawasi.
Violence continues despite ceasefire
OCHA reported 11 settler attacks in Dar Fazaa and East Taybeh since a nearby outpost was established in May. The UN office said settlers had taken control of the only water points and cut supplies to more than 200 people, while nine of 10 Bedouin communities along the same road had been emptied.
Israeli prosecutors charged six settlers, five minors and an 18-year-old, over a June 14 arson attack in Deir Dibwan that targeted vehicles and a mosque, according to Al Jazeera. Israeli forces also demolished homes in a settler outpost at Beit Anot on June 25, while Wafa reported continuing settler raids and arson during the week.
In Gaza, the Ministry of Health said at least 1,045 people have been killed since the ceasefire began nearly nine months ago. Al Jazeera reported Israeli strikes in the past week that killed one person in Beit Lahiya, three police officers near Maghazi camp and two siblings in al-Mawasi.
The Gaza Ministry of Health warned that about half of the enclave’s dialysis machines had stopped because supplies were lacking. OCHA said humanitarian work in Gaza remains less than 25 percent funded.
This story draws on original reporting from Al Jazeera.