Israel announces siege of Rafah in southern Gaza
Israeli army says it completed construction of Morag Corridor to isolate southern Gaza
JERUSALEM/ANKARA
The Israeli army announced on Saturday that it has completed the siege of Rafah, and finished establishing the Morag Corridor, isolating Rafah from Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.
In a statement, the Israeli army said: “Forces of the 36th Division have completed the encirclement of Rafah.”
It added that in the past 24 hours, troops “completed opening the Morag Corridor, which cuts through southern Gaza between Rafah and Khan Younis.”
This development follows a report earlier this week by the daily Haaretz, which revealed that the army is preparing to incorporate Rafah, an area that makes up about one-fifth of the Gaza Strip, into a so-called buffer zone where Palestinians will be prohibited from entering.
The newspaper described the move as tantamount to “the eradication of the city.”
According to Haaretz, the planned buffer zone spans approximately 75 square kilometers (29 square miles) and stretches between the Philadelphi and Morag corridors, encompassing Rafah and surrounding neighborhoods.
The Morag Corridor is named after an illegal Israeli settlement that once stood in Gaza before Israel’s 2005 unilateral disengagement from the strip. It lies between Khan Younis and Rafah in the south.
On April 2, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video statement: “We are taking control of the Morag Corridor, which will be an additional Philadelphi Corridor.”
On Thursday, the Palestinian group Hamas accused Netanyahu of enforcing a new status quo in Rafah aimed at isolating Gaza from its Arab surroundings.
The Israeli army renewed a deadly assault on Gaza on March 18, shattering the ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement that took hold in January.
More than 50,900 Palestinians, most of them women and children, have been killed in Gaza in a brutal Israeli onslaught since October 2023.
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants last November for 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.
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