JERUSALEM/GAZA/RAMALLAH/UNITED NATIONS – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during a visit to the Gaza Strip on Wednesday that Israeli troops would remain in the enclave along the so-called "Yellow Line."

"We control the territory. We are not withdrawing. We are staying on this line," Netanyahu said in a video released by his office. He said Israel would continue its operations until Hamas was disarmed and Gaza demilitarized.

He said Israel now controlled about 60 percent of the Gaza Strip, adding: "There is more to come, as we continue to kill militants who threaten us on a daily basis."

The "Yellow Line" was established under an October 2025 US-brokered ceasefire as the line to which Israeli forces were initially to withdraw. The plan envisaged further Israeli withdrawals alongside steps including the disarmament of Hamas, but Netanyahu rejected the US-backed 15-point Gaza peace plan in August.

Israel has pushed its positions further into Gaza, expanding the territory under its military control. Netanyahu said in May that he had ordered the military to expand its control to 70 percent of the enclave.

5 Palestinians killed in Gaza, West Bank

Also on Wednesday, three Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire in the Gaza Strip, according to Palestinian sources.

Local sources and eyewitnesses said Israeli forces opened fire on tents sheltering displaced people in Jabalia in northern Gaza, while an Israeli drone targeted a gathering of Palestinians in the Jabalia refugee camp. Al-Shifa Medical Complex said in a statement that the bodies of two Palestinians, including a 16-year-old boy, were brought to the hospital, along with several wounded people. 

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Separately, Al-Aqsa Hospital said a Palestinian woman died after succumbing to serious injuries sustained Tuesday from Israeli fire in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza.

In the West Bank, two Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire on Wednesday evening in a village north of Ramallah, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

In a statement, the ministry identified the victims as 19-year-old Omar Mohammad Naji al-Na'ssan and 16-year-old Khalil Rassem Khalil Shehadeh.

Earlier, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said in a statement that its crews treated two people who sustained gunshot wounds, one to the neck and the other to the back, during an attack by Israeli settlers and troops on the village of al-Mughayyir. Both were transferred to a hospital.

Israeli forces also carried out a series of demolitions across the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem earlier in the day, while Rabee' al-Shurafa, mayor of Beita, south of Nablus, said settlers burned three vehicles and attacked Palestinian homes in an eastern area between Beita and Osarin.

EU: Israeli project undermines 2-state solution

Meanwhile, Israel's E1 settlement project in the West Bank will further undermine the prospect of a two-state solution, European Union (EU) foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas warned Wednesday.

"The E1 settlements will further undermine the prospect of the two-state solution by driving a wedge through the West Bank," Kallas told a press conference following an informal meeting of EU foreign affairs ministers in Wicklow, Ireland.

READ MORE: UN: More civilian casualties reported in Gaza, West Bank

"Settler violence against Palestinians continues to rise, and too often goes unchecked," Kallas said.

Israel advanced the controversial E1 settlement project in the West Bank in August by issuing a tender for 1,234 housing units. Published online by Israel's Ministry of Construction and Housing, the tender covers part of a broader plan to build 3,401 housing units in the E1 area, located east of Jerusalem.

UN humanitarians concerned over civilians' safety

UN Humanitarians on Wednesday expressed deep concern over the safety and welfare of civilians in the occupied Palestinian territory as three children have been reportedly killed in 24 hours.

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said Wednesday on Facebook that two girls and a boy aged 3 to 13 had reportedly been killed in the preceding 24 hours in Gaza, with at least five other children injured.

According to Gaza-based health authorities, the death toll since the ceasefire took effect in October 2025 had risen to 1,334, with 4,429 others wounded.

They added that the overall death toll since the outbreak of the conflict on Oct 7, 2023, had reached 73,470, with 174,540 others wounded.