IDF CARVING NEW CORRIDOR ACROSS GAZA TO CUT OFF RAFAH – And put more pressure on Hamas Netanyahu says
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that advancing IDF forces were carving out a new security corridor across southern Gaza that would likely cut off the city of Rafah from the rest of the Strip, as Israel seeks to pile pressure on Hamas to free the hostages.
Israel is “shifting gears” in Gaza and creating a “second Philadelphi” route, Netanyahu said in a video message, referring to the corridor on the Gaza-Egypt border.
IDF forces are seizing the “Morag Corridor,” said Netanyahu. The route, which separates Rafah from Khan Younis to its north, is located where the Israeli settlement of the same name once stood, before it was evacuated during Israel’s 2005 withdrawal from Gaza.
Netanyahu has made continued Israeli control of the Philadelphi Corridor a top priority in the ongoing ceasefire negotiations, insisting that an IDF withdrawal from the route would allow for the smuggling of weapons into the Strip.
Israel has also reasserted control over the Netzarim Corridor — also named for a former settlement — which cuts off the northern third of Gaza, including Gaza City, from the rest of the narrow coastal strip. Both of the existing corridors run from the Israeli border to the Mediterranean Sea.
