Israel has taken control of nearly 1,000 square kilometers of territory across the Middle East since October 2023, the Financial Times reported.

Citing its own calculations, the newspaper said Israeli forces have established control over areas in the Gaza Strip, southern Lebanon and Syria, amounting to roughly 5% of Israel’s territory within its 1949 armistice lines.

According to the report, more than half of the land now under Israeli control lies in southern Lebanon, where troops have advanced several kilometres beyond the border to establish what officials describe as a “security zone” aimed at pushing Hezbollah forces away from Israeli communities and limiting the group’s ability to launch cross-border attacks, including anti-tank missiles.

The remainder of the territory cited by the Financial Times is located in Gaza and Syria. In the Gaza Strip, Israeli forces are reported to control more than half of the enclave’s territory, alongside a series of expanded buffer zones. As a result, around two million residents are now concentrated in roughly 40% of Gaza’s pre-war area, the report said.

The newspaper said the strategy reflects a broader shift in Israeli military thinking under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government following the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack, with territorial control increasingly used as a tool to reshape security dynamics along Israel’s borders.