Jerusalem: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday he had ordered the country’s military to take control of 70 percent of the Gaza Strip,in defiance of the terms of a fragile ceasefire that took effect in October. “We are currently squeezing Hamas. We now control 60 percent of the territory in the strip,” he said at a conference in an occupied West Bank settlement, according to a video aired by Israel’s Channel 12 network. He said the military had controlled 50 percent of Gaza under the terms of the ceasefire, adding: “My directive is to move to... 70 percent”. “We’re squeezing them from all (sides). We’ll deal with what’s left afterwards.” The first phase of the truce saw the last hostages seized in Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel, which triggered the war in Gaza, released in exchange for Palestinians detained by Israel. The transition to the second phase, which was supposed to involve Hamas’s disarmament and a gradual withdrawal of the Israeli army, has been stalled for months.…