DEIR AL-BALAH: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Wednesday that Israel is creating a new security corridor across Gaza. Israel also said it plans to take control of large areas in Gaza and launched airstrikes that Palestinian health officials say killed more than 40 people.
Netanyahu said the corridor will be called the Morag corridor, named after a former Jewish settlement between Rafah and Khan Younis. This suggests it will run between these two southern cities.
Israel has said it will continue the war with Hamas until the group returns the remaining hostages, disarms, and leaves Gaza. The country ended a ceasefire in March and has stopped all imports of food, fuel, and humanitarian aid for the past month.
"We are increasing the pressure step by step, so that they will give us our hostages. And the more they do not give, the more the pressure will increase until they do," Netanyahu said.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said the military is now focused on "seizing large areas that will be added to the security zones," but he did not provide further details.
Israel already controls a buffer zone along Gaza’s entire border and recently ordered everyone to leave the southern city of Rafah.
In northern Gaza, an Israeli airstrike hit a UN building in the Jabaliya refugee camp. The Indonesian Hospital reported that 15 people were killed, including nine children and two women. Israel’s military said it targeted Hamas militants using the building as a command and control center.
The building, previously a clinic, had been turned into a shelter for displaced people. Juliette Touma, a spokesperson for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, said more than 700 people were staying there. No UN staff were injured in the attack.
Touma said UN staff warned people to leave after the attack, but many refused because they had nowhere else to go.
According to the UN humanitarian aid office, more than 60 percent of Gaza is now a "no-go" zone due to Israeli evacuation orders. Hundreds of thousands of people are living in makeshift tents along the coast or in the ruins of their destroyed homes.
Katz urged Gaza residents to "expel Hamas and return all the hostages," saying, "this is the only way to end the war."
On Sunday, Netanyahu said Israel plans to maintain control over Gaza after the war and implement a plan proposed by former U.S. President Donald Trump to resettle much of Gaza’s population elsewhere through "voluntary emigration." Palestinians have rejected this plan, calling it an attempt to expel them from their homeland. Human rights experts warn it could violate international law.
Hamas has said it will release the remaining 59 hostages—24 of whom are believed to be alive—only in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, a lasting ceasefire, and an Israeli withdrawal. The group refuses to disarm or leave Gaza.
The decision to continue the war has sparked protests in Israel. Many fear it puts the hostages at greater risk and are demanding another ceasefire and a prisoner exchange.
The Hostage Families Forum, representing most captives’ families, said they were "horrified to wake up this morning to the Defence Minister's announcement about expanding military operations in Gaza." The group urged the U.S. government, which helped broker the earlier ceasefire but supports Israel’s military actions, to do everything possible to free the remaining hostages.
"Our highest priority must be an immediate deal to bring ALL hostages back home—the living for rehabilitation and those killed for proper burial—and end this war," the group said.
Israeli airstrikes overnight killed 28 more people across Gaza, according to local hospitals. The Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis said the dead included five women, one of whom was pregnant, and two children.
Israel claims it only targets militants and takes steps to avoid civilian casualties, blaming Hamas for operating in densely populated areas.
The war began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages. Most have since been released through ceasefire agreements and other deals. Israel has rescued eight hostages alive and recovered dozens of bodies.
Gaza’s Health Ministry says more than 50,000 Palestinians have died in the conflict but does not specify how many were civilians or militants. Israel claims to have killed around 20,000 Hamas fighters but has not provided evidence.
The war has left large parts of Gaza in ruins and, at its peak, displaced about 90 percent of the population.
