Israel announced Saturday it has completed construction of a new security corridor that cuts off the southern city of Rafah from the rest of Gaza, as the military said it would soon expand "vigorously" in most of the small coastal territory. Palestinians were further squeezed into shrinking areas of land, the AP reports. "Soon, (military) 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 are intended to go.
The statement urged Palestinians to stand up and remove Hamas and release the remaining hostages, saying: "This is the only way to stop the war." There was no immediate Hamas response. 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, indicating it could soon launch another major ground operation. In a statement, the Rafah municipality 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 whom are believed to be alive, and accept 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 dispute that. Katz said Palestinians interested in relocating to other countries would be able to as part of a proposal by President Trump. But Palestinians have rejected that idea.
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