Israel Says New Security Corridor Completed, Severing Gaza's Southernmost City

from Military (dot) Com

Israel announced Saturday it completed the construction of the new Morag corridor, essentially separating the southern city of Rafah from the rest of the Gaza Strip, further squeezing Palestinians into shrinking wedges of land, as airstrikes continued across the enclave.

The forces have "completed the encirclement of Rafah,” a statement by the Israeli military said.

Israeli troops with the 36th Division were deployed last week to Morag, the name of a Jewish settlement that once stood between Rafah and Khan Younis, after the army ordered sweeping evacuations covering most of Rafah, indicating it could soon launch another major ground operation.

This comes as Israel has vowed to seize large parts of the Palestinian territory to pressure Hamas to release the remaining 59 hostages, 24 of whom are believed to be alive. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government has also imposed a monthlong blockade on food, fuel and humanitarian aid that has left the territory’s roughly 2 million Palestinians facing acute shortages as supplies dwindle — a tactic that rights groups say is a war crime...

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Egypt warns of ‘military response’ after Israel’s seizure of sensitive buffer zone

from PressTV

Egypt has warned it’s ready to respond militarily after Israeli troops seized a sensitive corridor of land along its border with the Gaza Strip.

According to the Wall Street Journal, ties between Tel Aviv and Cairo are now fraying, with Egypt having told Israel it will not hesitate to respond militarily if it feels its security has been threatened.

It came after the Israeli military said the regime’s forces had taken “operational” control over the 14 km-long corridor along Gaza’s border with Egypt.

“The Philadelphi Corridor served as an oxygen line for Hamas, which it regularly used to smuggle weapons into the area of the Gaza Strip,” Daniel Hagari, Israel’s chief military spokesperson, claimed, using the Israeli military’s code name for the 14 buffer zone.

An Israeli military official has clarified that there were Israeli “boots on the ground” along parts of the corridor.

Israel has claimed there are at least 20 tunnels in the Philadelphi corridor, but Egypt has denied the existence of the tunnel network linking Egypt’s Sinai and the Gaza Strip.

“Israel is using these allegations to justify continuing the operation on the Palestinian city of Rafah and prolonging the war for political purposes,” a high-level Egyptian source said, according to state-linked Al-Qahera News.

Earlier this year, Egypt said that an Israeli military presence there would violate the 1979 peace treaty between the two regimes...

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