Thousands flee as Israel seizes Rafah in new Gaza ‘security zone’
Israel announced on Saturday that its military had completed the takeover of a new corridor in southern Gaza, advancing its efforts to seize large parts of the war-battered Palestinian territory.
The military also announced a sweeping evacuation order for tens of thousands of residents of Khan Yunis and surrounding areas in southern Gaza ahead of a planned strike after projectiles were fired from there earlier in the day.
The seizure of the “Morag axis” came while Hamas expected “real progress” towards a cease-fire deal to end the war in Gaza, an official from the group told AFP, with senior leaders from the Palestinian movement scheduled to hold talks with Egyptian mediators in Cairo later on Saturday.
“The IDF (military) has now completed its takeover of the Morag axis, which crosses Gaza between Rafah and Khan Yunis, turning the entire area between the Philadelphi Route (along the border with Egypt) and Morag into part of the Israeli security zone,” minister of military affairs Israel Katz said in a statement addressed to residents of Gaza.
“Soon, IDF operations will intensify and expand to other areas throughout most of Gaza, and you will need to evacuate the combat zones.”
“In northern Gaza as well — in Beit Hanoun and other neighborhoods — residents are evacuating, the area is being taken over and the security zone is being expanded, including in the Netzarim corridor,” he added.
Since a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas collapsed in mid-March, Israel’s renewed offensive in Gaza has displaced hundreds of thousands of people while the military has seized large areas of the war-battered territory.
Top Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have repeatedly said that the ongoing assault aims to pressure Hamas into freeing the remaining 58 hostages held in Gaza.
Hamas said the offensive not only “kills defenseless civilians but also makes the fate of the occupation’s prisoners (hostages) uncertain.”
In a separate announcement, the military ordered residents of Khan Yunis and surrounding areas to evacuate after the air force intercepted three projectiles fired from south Gaza earlier in the day.
The United Nations had warned a day before that expanding Israeli evacuation orders were resulting in the “forcible transfer” of people into ever-shrinking areas, raising “real concern as to the future viability of Palestinians as a group in Gaza.”
Gaza’s health ministry said on Friday that at least 1,563 Palestinians had been killed in Israeli attacks since March 18 when the cease-fire collapsed, taking the overall death toll since the war began to 50,933. Dozens of these strikes have killed “only women and children,” the UN human rights office said Friday.