Netanyahu says that FDI sculpting the new corridor through Gaza to cut Rafah, pressure from Hamas

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that the advancement of the ASAhal forces was walking a new safety corridor across the south of Gaza, which would probably make the city of Rafah of Rafah of the rest of the strip while Israel seeks to express pressure on Hamas to release hostages.

Israel “changes speed” in Gaza and creates a path of “second Philadelphi”, said Netanyahu in a video message, referring to the corridor on the border of Gaza-Egypt.

Tsahal’s forces seize the “Morag corridor,” said Netanyahu. The route, which separates Rafah from Khan Younis to its north, is located where the Israeli colony of the same name was held, before being evacuated during the withdrawal of Israel in 2005 from Gaza.

Netanyahu has done the continuous Israeli control of the Philadelphi corridor an absolute priority in the negotiations during the ceasefire, insisting that a TSAhal withdrawal of the route would make it possible to switch from the smuggling of weapons in the band. However, he agreed within the framework of the January hostage agreement to fully withdraw the Israeli troops from the Philadelphi corridor on the 50th day of the agreement – a clause that Israel violated. Israeli troops remain in the corridor and have also widened their presence there.

Israel has also reaffirmed control of the Netzarim corridor – also appointed for an old colony – which cuts the northern third of Gaza, including Gaza City, from the rest of the narrow coastal strip. The two existing corridors range from the Israeli border to the Mediterranean Sea.

This decision is part of a growing TSAhal military campaign to set up Hamas to accept Israeli conditions for a cease-fire and hostage release contract, Netanyahu said.

Israel pushes forward north and southern, evacuating civilians towards the center of Gaza.

“We are now cutting the band and we increase the pressure step by step … so that they give us our hostages. The more they refuse to abandon them, the more the pressure will increase until they do it,” said Netanyahu.

Netanyahu’s comments have occurred while the FDIs have considerably increased its offensive renewal, deploying another division in the South Gaza Strip early during the day and performing heavy air strikes before major ground in the area.

The reinforcements brought the number of divisions operating in Gaza to three.

The FDI said that it has struck more than 50 sites belonging to Hamas and other terrorist groups overnight. During the day, additional dozens were carried out across Gaza.

Palestinian reports said more than 40 people had been killed during strikes, including 19 people in a United Nations clinic in Jabalia. The figures could not be checked. The FDI said it has attacked a Hamas command center installed in the medical center and had taken measures to limit civilian victims.

Meanwhile, two rockets were fired Wednesday evening from the north of Gaza, triggering sirens in the Israeli city of Sderot, said the FDI. The projectiles were intercepted by the air defenses, without any report of injury or damage in the attack.

After the fire, the FDIs emit an evacuation warning for the Palestinians in the Beit Hanoun and Jabalia region.

In an article on X, the spokesperson for the Arabic language of FDI, Colonel Avichay Adraee, publishes a map of the area which must be evacuated, saying that it is a “final warning” before the FDIs are there.

# عاجل ‼ Lish إلى جميع سكان قطاع غغة المتواجدين في مناطق بيت حانون وجباليا والاحياء t الزهور ، الشيخ زايد ، المنble

???? هذا انذار مسبق وخير قبل الهجوم! ????
⭕️Lub ا Vier المنظمات… pic.twitter.com/ph6bidokfp

– افيخاي ادرعي (@Avichayadraee) April 2, 2025

The area between Rafah and Khan Younis is one of the few places in Gaza where the ground troops have not yet operated. The FDIs issued evacuation warnings for the Palestinians in the region before the offensive. Meanwhile, in the north of the strip, the FDI said that it also operated to extend its buffer area along the border.

Later Wednesday, the FDI chief of staff, Lieutenant-General Eyal Zamir and the chief of Shin Bet, Ronen Bar, visited troops in the Tel Sultan of Rafah.

During the visit, Zamir has sworn that “the only thing that can prevent us from progressing is the release of our hostages”.

Bar, who is being dismissed by Netanyahu, repeated the message, saying that “Hamas will continue to pay the price as long as the 59 hostages are not returned.”

The army reiterated that the ultimate objective of the new offensive on the ground in Rafah is to put pressure on Hamas to release the hostages.

In the midst of FDI’s advances, Olga Cherevko, spokesperson for the United Nations Humanitarian Aid, said that more than 60% Gaza is now considered a “without Go” area due to Israeli evacuation orders.

Earlier Wednesday, the Minister of Defense Israel Katz said that the offensive aimed to seize an “extensive territory” in Gaza.

The troops will move to eraser areas “of terrorists and infrastructure, and will capture an extensive territory which will be added to state security zones”, said Katz in a press release.

The enlarged field operation occurred a few days after the FDIs issued an evacuation warning for the entire Rafah region and a large gang of land between Rafah and Khan Younis

It was the most important evacuation order issued by the FDIs since the offensive against Hamas resumed earlier this month, ending a two-month ceasefire. Orders came during Eid al-Fitr, a normally festive Muslim party marking the end of the month of Ramadan fast.

In his Wednesday declaration, Katz also called Gazans “to act now to overthrow Hamas and return all the hostages”.

The terrorist groups of the Gaza Strip still hold 59 hostages, including 58 of the 251 kidnapped by terrorists led by Hamas on October 7, 2023. Among them, the bodies of at least 35 hostages that have been confirmed by the FDI.

Israel restarted the intense bombing of Gaza on March 18, then launched a new offensive on the ground, ending a ceasefire almost two months in the war with Hamas.

Under the terms of the ceasefire agreement of January 19, the teams had to launch negotiations during the second phase a few weeks after the first, but Netanyahu refused to do so, insisting that war would not end as long as the governance and military capacities of Hamas have not been demolished. Meanwhile, Hamas rejected a series of offers to extend the first phase while continuing to gradually free hostages.