The army says that it finished the Morag corridor because it threatens to extend its operations to “most of the Gaza territory”.
The Israeli army said that it had finished building what it calls the Morag corridor, which cuts the city of Rafah from the rest of Gaza, when it widens its attacks against the southern part of the band.
The Arabic language spokesman for the Israeli army published new forced travel orders for several districts in Khan Younis on Saturday, warning of an imminent attack “with great force” in response to the alleged Roquettes of Hamas drawn from Israel in this region.
The residents of Qizan An-Najjar, Qizan Abu Rashwan, Al-Salam, Al-Manara, Al-Quin, Maen, Al-Batn Al — Tameen, Jurt al-Lot, Al-Fakhari and the southern districts of Bani Suheila were ordered to leave their homes and carry out Al-Mawasi, on the seab coast of Gaza.
The announcement occurred in the middle of a dam of drone attacks and artillery bombing on Khan Younis who killed at least two people.
The Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said that the Morag corridor has effectively transformed Rafah into an “Israeli security zone” and added that the netzarim corridor, which divides the band in half, would also be widened.
“A voluntary passage” will be granted to the Palestinians who wish to flee Gaza, said Katz in a statement, again mentioning the plan of the American president Trump to remove the Palestinians from Gaza.
Katz told the besieged population of Gaza that he offered them the “last chance to ban Hamas and release all hostages, to stop the war”, otherwise Israeli operations will spread to “most of the Gaza territory”.
Hamas has published a statement accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of having extended the war despite repeated calls from Israeli society to arrest the conflict. “The equation is clear: the release of captives in exchange for a cessation of war. The world accepts it, but Netanyahu rejects it,” he said.
“The blood of the children of Gaza and the prisoners of the occupation are victims of Netanyahu’s ambitions to stay in power and to escape prosecution.”
Tel Aviv Tribune’s Nour Odeh, reporting from Jordan’s capital, said the Israeli Defense Minister had given the Palestinians an ultimatum. “Filling Hamas and delivering the Israeli captives,” said Katz is the only way to end war, “Odeh said.
About 2.1 million Palestinians are now pressed in approximately a third of Gaza and no truck with help, food, cooking gas or fuel has entered the band since Israel reprinted a blockade last month. Katz publicly said that, since the ceasefire breaking with Hamas on March 18, Israel’s goal was to put pressure on the civilian population, added the correspondent.
Robert Geist Pinfold, lecturer in international security at King’s College in London, told Tel Aviv Tribune that even if Israel says that the creation of the Morag corridor is purely operational and intended to force Hamas, it seems to be part of an Israeli strategy in the longer term to control Gaza from far away.
“Israel has always sought to control the Gaza Strip, in particular to supervise what is happening and what comes out and” security “in the territories, as Israel would call it,” he said.
“These corridors (Morag, Netzarim and Philadelphi) are appointed according to the colonies, and the colonies did not appear there at random. They were placed there at this specific goal: to cut the urban areas of Gaza and give Israel the ability to tighten the territory when and if it wishes. ”
