Israeli army ordered to seize 70% of Palestinian enclave

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:00]Let's discuss this further from Cairo.

[00:00:02]I'm joined by Khaled Darwood who is a Middle East commentator and also the managing editor of the publication Al Abraham Weekly. Welcome to the program.

[00:00:12]Thank you. 70% is he is he just speaking to his base or is this possible?

[00:00:22]>> Well, um thank you for having me first of all. Um, allow me to say that in in practical terms, the Israelis control all of Gaza. I mean, and then it's just a issue is making life totally impossible for the nearly 2 million Palestinians who are living inside Gaza so far by squeezing them further into a very small piece of territory. But in real terms, it's the Israelis that control entry and exit, what if there is an exit out of Gaza and they are the ones who control the entry of goods that gets into Gaza, basic goods, food and medicine as well as fuel. So practically speaking, it's again part of what I can see a plan by Israel which was expressed by the Israeli defense minister Kat yesterday of reviving the project to forcibly displace the Palestinian people and make them leave the Gaza Strip especially at the time we can see that Israel is getting closer to elections.

[00:01:24]So Mr. Netanyahu and his extremist government basically survive on wars and at a time when there is too much pressure in Israel to wrap up its war against Lebanon. Perhaps he sees Netanyahu in escalation in Gaza a chance to continue to make the Israeli people feel under pressure and under threat and perhaps you know give them give him his support when the time for elections come whether in September or October. Um I'm just wondering about the international community because there is outcry um from so many people but does anybody have any teeth in this to make it stop?

[00:02:06]There are so many violations that are being reported. It's not an opinion.

[00:02:11]This has been reported by organizations.

[00:02:15]What can be done?

[00:02:19]Well, I mean, unfortunately, I mean, the problem is that the key guarantor or the key sponsor of this so-called attempt to restore peace in Gaza is the US President Donald Trump. As we all know, I mean, he's the one who pushed for the ceasefire, the so-called 20point plan.

[00:02:39]But at the same time, of course, he's very much, you know, involved in the Iran war. That's basically the the main problem that he has to deal with over the past three months, let alone the deteriorating situation in Lebanon. So unfortunately, the Palestinian issue and the situation in Gaza and the entire 20point plan has been basically sidelined. There were so many of the steps that were expected to be taken according to this plan whether in terms of reconstruction of the nearly 80% or 90% devastated the Gaza Strip in terms of allowing an international stabilization force to get into Gaza to assure first of all the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and at the same time provide the Palestinians a little sense of security and then of course to there was this attempt to link link the the the restoration of relative stability in Gaza to reviving the the longstalled peace process and linking the Gaza to the West Bank and starting some serious negotiations on the establishment of a Palestinian state.

[00:03:49]All this over the past three months because of the war against Iran has been basically ignored and as we can see I mean for the US president what matters most is that there is no return to fullcale war there is some relative you know deescalation of violence compared to what the situation was over two years and that's very sad to be very honest because what they're basically saying is that it's relatively okay to get 10 people killed a day as compared to 100 people getting killed a day and disregarding totally the extremely inhumane living conditions that Palestinians are suffering right now.

[00:04:29]When you talk about 60% or 70% you mean again squeezing more than 2 million Palestinians in a matter of 135 kilometers which is a very small piece of land let alone that Gaza all of Gaza is a very small piece of land. So basically that's why I do not exclude what the Israeli defense minister Kat said about renewing effort to push Palestinians out of their own homeland.

[00:04:53]>> Halid, thank you very much for that.

[00:04:55]Thank you.

[00:04:57]Thank