The Israel Defense Forces is seizing territory in the Gaza Strip in response to Hamas’s refusal to release the remaining 59 hostages, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed on Wednesday.
“Last night in Gaza, we switched gears,” the premier said in a Hebrew-language video statement. “The IDF is seizing territory, striking the terrorists and destroying the infrastructure.”
“We are also doing something else. We are seizing the Morag Corridor,” he said, calling the security strip “an additional Philadelphi Corridor.”
Netanyahu has repeatedly stressed the need for the IDF to retain control of the Philadelphi Corridor, the 8.7-mile border region separating Gaza from Egypt, which the military has described as Hamas’s “lifeline.”
Until Jerusalem’s 2005 unilateral disengagement from Gaza, Morag was an Israeli farming community on the southwest edge of the Strip near the Palestinian city of Rafah. In recent days, the Israeli military has issued large-scale evacuation orders across most of the Rafah area.
A security corridor in the area of Morag would effectively cut off Rafah from the nearby city of Khan Yunis, according to Hebrew media reports.
“We are now dividing the Strip and increasing the pressure step by step so they will give us our hostages,” Netanyahu said. “As long as they do not give them to us, the pressure will increase.”
“We are determined to achieve the objectives of the war, and we are acting relentlessly and with a clear line and a clear mission,” he said.
Almost two weeks ago, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz threatened to annex parts of Gaza unless Hamas terrorists released the captives they still hold.
If Hamas “continues to refuse to release the captives, I instructed the IDF to capture additional areas, evacuate the population and expand the security zone around Gaza for the protection of Israeli communities through a permanent hold of the area,” the defense minister said on March 21.
“As long as Hamas continues its refusal, it will lose more and more land to Israel,” added Katz, a member of Netanyahu’s ruling Likud Party.
Previously, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said that if Hamas failed to return all of the hostages, Israel would permanently seize land in the Gaza Strip. “Israel will expand the agricultural areas of the kibbutzim Be’eri and Nir Oz into the perimeter area of the Gaza Strip,” he warned on Feb. 24.
With the collapse of the truce and renewed fighting in Gaza, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir has urged an escalation against Hamas terror.
“Hamas is stalling for time. This is a strategy, not just a tactic,” Zamir stated in security discussions. “The IDF’s actions are hurting them and causing instability, but they are not leading to the release of hostages. Therefore, we have no choice. We must increase the pressure.”
