Said Amouri and Ahmed Asmar
12 April 2025•Update: 12 April 2025
JERUSALEM/ANKARA
The Israeli army said Friday it completed the seizure of its newly established "Morag Corridor" area, fully separating Rafah, the southernmost of the Gaza Strip, from the rest of the Palestinian territory.
Israeli Army Radio said forces completed control of the Morag Corridor area, which it said extends between the Gaza-Egypt borders and the outskirts of Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
It added that Rafah is completely besieged by Israeli forces.
Israeli Army Radio noted that the army will stabilize control of the Morag Corridor area in the next stage, and advance toward inside Rafah to make it "a border buffer zone" under its full control.
The Haaretz newspaper said Wednesday that the Israeli army is planning to incorporate the entirety of Rafah into a buffer zone being built along the border -- an area that covers 75 square kilometers (29 square miles), or around one-fifth of the Palestinian territory.
The area, located between the Philadelphi Corridor to the south and the Morag route to the north, was home to 200,000 Palestinians before the Israeli onslaught began in October 2023.
The Israeli army renewed its assault on Gaza on March 18, shattering a Jan. 19 ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement.
Nearly 51,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, have been killed in Gaza since an Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack. The military campaign has left the enclave in ruins and rendered it almost uninhabitable.
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants last November for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.
