Israel announces plans to seize “ large “ Gaza areas as it widens the offensive against Hamas

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Wednesday that Israel had seized a territory ribbon in the Gaza Strip a few hours after his government planned to seize large parts of the enclave.

The announcement is added to the growing drum of the Israeli authorities in recent days which have suggested that Israel would change tactics to hold the territory in Gaza, at least temporarily, in order to put pressure on Hamas to release the remaining hostages. The officials also affirmed a vision of Gaza from the post -war period in which the Palestinians would move elsewhere – an idea vehement rejected by a large part of the world.

Holding a territory, said Netanyahu, was to push Hamas to return at least 59 hostages remaining in the group and its allies captured on October 7, 2023. “The pressure will increase until they put them back,” he said in a filmed declaration.

During the 15 -month -old military campaign preceding a truce in January, Israeli forces stormed the cities of Gazan before retiring, leaving behind a vast destruction but allowing Palestinian activists to regroup in the rubble.

In the weeks following the ceasefire, many Gazans returned home, but Israel resumed his attacks in mid-March.

Now the soldiers seem to plan parking forces in captured territory. Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday that the newly captured areas would be “added to the security zones” that the army currently keeps in Gaza, including a stamp along the enclave borders with Egypt and Israel, and a large part of a key road in the center of the enclave.

Netanyahu said that Israel would establish a safety corridor, which, according to him, would cut the southern city of Rafah from the rest of the strip. The so-called Morag corridor seemed to take its name from an ancient Israeli colony in the south of Gaza, from which Israel withdrew in 2005.