Martyr in Beit Lahia and Israeli admission of occupying 70% of the Gaza Strip

The town of Beit Lahia, north of the Gaza Strip, recorded a new crime committed by the Israeli occupation forces on Thursday morning, resulting in the martyrdom of a Palestinian citizen after he was targeted with live bullets in the Al-Atatra area. Medical sources confirmed the arrival of the martyr's body at Al-Shifa Medical Complex, noting that this aggression represents an additional violation of the ceasefire agreement announced last October, which has witnessed repeated Israeli violations leading to hundreds of casualties.

In a related context, data from the Ministry of Health in the Strip revealed a heavy toll of Israeli violations since the agreement came into effect, with 1029 Palestinians martyred and 3249 others injured. These figures come amid ongoing limited military operations and direct sniping by the occupation army in border areas and the northern Strip, raising the total number of genocide victims since October 2023 to more than 73,000 martyrs.

For his part, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu admitted that his army currently controls about 70% of the total area of the Gaza Strip, which is equivalent to 255 square kilometers out of 365 square kilometers. This admission solidifies the reality of direct occupation and confirms the Israeli government's endeavor to expand buffer zones and security squares within the Strip, disregarding all international warnings and agreements.

Field data indicate that the expansion of the occupation into these vast areas has confined about 2.13 million Palestinians to a narrow area not exceeding 110 square kilometers. This policy leads to the creation of suffocating population density exceeding 19,000 people per square kilometer, amid an almost complete lack of basic services and the destruction of 90% of civilian infrastructure and vital facilities.

As for the West Bank, the young man Mustafa Taha Khatib was martyred by the bullets of the occupation forces who stormed his home in the town of Sarata to the north, in a crime that coincided with a widespread raid campaign. Local sources reported that the occupation forces arrested 16 citizens on Thursday morning, including three children and a member of the Huwara municipal council. The arrests were concentrated in the Qalqilya, Ramallah, and Nablus governorates, bringing the number of detainees since October 2023 to about 23,000.

On the legal front within the Israeli military establishment, legal advisor Kobi Marcus warned of a state of 'leadership chaos' prevailing in the West Bank due to illegal military checkpoints. Marcus explained that many restrictions imposed on the movement of Palestinians are made without official approvals, noting the difficulty of distinguishing between checkpoints established by the army and those imposed by settlers to terrorize the population.

These rapid developments in Gaza and the West Bank reflect a unified Israeli strategy aimed at tightening the noose on the Palestinian presence through direct killing, systematic arrests, and land grabbing. Despite previous UN warnings against invading densely populated areas such as Rafah, the occupation continues to impose new realities on the ground that further complicate the humanitarian catastrophe and make the lives of civilians a daily hell.

Netanyahu's statements about controlling 70% of Gaza mean reducing the available area for more than two million Palestinians to only 110 square kilometers.