GAZA CITY: Israeli forces completed the encirclement of Gaza’s Rafah, the military said on Saturday as part of an announced plan to seize more areas of the enclave, accompanied by large-scale evacuations of the Palestinian population.
Israel said troops had begun seizing the area, it called the Morag Axis, in southern Gaza on April 2, forcing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to flee Rafah that borders Egypt to the south. “Over the past 24 hours, the 36th Division’s troops completed the establishment of the Morag route, separating Rafah and Khan Younis,” the Israeli military said on Saturday.
The seizure of the “Morag axis” came while Hamas expected “real progress” towards a ceasefire deal to end the war in Gaza, an official from the group said, 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,” Defence Minister Israel Katz claimed in a statement addressed to residents of Gaza.
Capture of ‘Morag Axis’ comes amid Cairo talks for ceasefire
The military also announced a sweeping evacuation order for tens of thousands of residents of Khan Yunis and surrounding areas in southern 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 neighbourhoods — residents are evacuating, the area is being taken over and the security zone is being expanded, including in the Netzarim corridor,” the minister added.
Cairo talks
Since a ceasefire brokered in January collapsed in mid-March, Israel’s renewed offensive in Gaza has killed more than 1,500 Palestinians, displaced hundreds of thousands of people while the military has seized large swathes 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 Israeli prisoners held in Gaza.
