TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel announced Saturday it had completed construction of a new security corridor cutting off the southern city of Rafah from the rest of Gaza, and the military said it would soon expand “vigorously” in most of the small coastal territory.
Palestinians were further squeezed into shrinking areas.
“Activity will expand rapidly to additional locations throughout most of Gaza and you will have to evacuate the fighting zones,” Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement, without saying where Palestinians were meant to go.
The statement urged Palestinians to remove Hamas and release the remaining hostages, saying: “This is the only way to stop the war.”
Israeli troops were deployed last week to the new security corridor referred to as Morag, the name of a Jewish settlement that once stood between Rafah and Khan Younis, after the army ordered sweeping evacuations covering most of Rafah — an indication it could soon launch another major ground operation.
The Rafah municipality in a statement called Israel’s actions a “flagrant breach of international legitimacy.”
Israel has vowed to seize large parts of Gaza to pressure Hamas to release the remaining 59 hostages, 24 of them believed to be alive, and accept proposed new ceasefire terms.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has also imposed a monthlong blockade on food, fuel and humanitarian aid that has left the territory’s roughly 2 million Palestinians facing acute shortages as supplies dwindle — a tactic that rights groups say is a war crime.
Israel has claimed that enough supplies entered Gaza during the two-month ceasefire that it shattered last month. Aid groups have disputed that.
Netanyahu has said Morag would be “a second Philadelphi corridor,” referring to the Gaza side of the border with Egypt farther south, which has been under Israeli control since May 2024. Israel has also reasserted control of the Netzarim corridor, which cuts off Gaza’s northern third from the rest of the territory.
The corridors, coupled with a buffer zone that Israel has razed and expanded, give it more than 50% control of the territory.
Displaced Palestinians flee from east to west of Gaza City after the Israeli military issued evacuation orders in the area, Friday April 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
via Associated Press
Displaced Palestinians flee from east to west of Gaza City after the Israeli military issued evacuation orders in the area, Friday April 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
via Associated Press
Katz said Palestinians interested in “voluntarily” relocating to other countries would be able to as part of a proposal by U.S. President Donald Trump. Palestinians have rejected the proposal and expressed their determination to remain in their homeland.
Trump and Israeli officials have not said how they would respond if Palestinians refuse to leave Gaza. But Human Rights Watch and other groups say the plan would amount to “ethnic cleansing” — the forcible relocation of the civilian population of an ethnic group from a geographic area.