ISRAELI Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced that Israel is establishing a new "security corridor" across Gaza, as the country said it planned to seize large areas of the Palestinian territory and launched a wave of strikes that Palestinian health officials said killed more than 40 people.
In a statement, Netanyahu described the new corridor as the Morag corridor, using the name of a Jewish settlement that once stood between Rafah and Khan Younis, suggesting it would run between the two southern cities.
Israel has vowed to escalate its attacks on Israel until Hamas returns dozens of remaining hostages, disarms and leaves the territory.
Israel ended a ceasefire in March and has imposed a month-long halt to all imports of food, fuel and humanitarian aid – a breach of international law.
“We are increasing the pressure step by step, so that they will give us our hostages. And the more they do not give, the more the pressure will increase until they do,” Netanyahu said.
Israeli defence minister Israel Katz said in a statement that the offensive is now aimed at “seizing large areas that will be added to the security zones", without elaborating.
Israel controls a buffer zone along Gaza’s entire border and recently ordered the full evacuation of the southern city of Rafah.
In northern Gaza, an Israeli air strike hit a UN building in the built-up Jabaliya refugee camp, killing 15 people, including nine children and two women, according to the Indonesian Hospital.
The Israeli military said it struck Hamas militants in a command and control centre.
The building, previously a clinic, had been converted into a shelter for displaced people, with more than 700 residing there, according to Juliette Touma, a spokesperson for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, the main aid provider in Gaza.
No UN staff were wounded in the strike.
She said UN staff warned people about the dangers of remaining there after Wednesday’s strike but that many chose to stay, “simply because they have absolutely nowhere else to go”.
More than 60% of Gaza is now considered a “no-go” zone because of Israeli evacuation orders, according to Olga Cherevko, a spokesperson for the UN humanitarian aid office.
Hundreds of thousands of people are living in squalid tent camps along the coast or in the ruins of their destroyed homes.
Katz called on Gaza residents to “expel Hamas and return all the hostages”, saying “this is the only way to end the war”.
On Sunday, Netanyahu said Israel plans to maintain overall security control of Gaza after the war and implement US President Donald Trump’s proposal to resettle much of its population elsewhere through what the Israeli leader referred to as “voluntary emigration” but is actually a clear case of ethnic cleansing.
Palestinians have rejected the plan, viewing it as expulsion from their homeland after Israel’s offensive left much of it uninhabitable, and human rights experts say implementing the plan would be likely to violate international law.
Hamas has said it will only release the remaining 59 hostages – 24 of whom are believed to be alive – in exchange for the release of more Palestinian prisoners, a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli pullout.
The group has rejected demands that it lay down its arms or leave the territory.
The decision to resume the war has fuelled protests in Israel, where many fear it has put the hostages at grave risk and are calling for another ceasefire and exchange with Hamas.
The Hostage Families Forum, which represents most captives’ families, said they were “horrified to wake up this morning to the defence minister’s announcement about expanding military operations in Gaza”.
The group called on the Trump administration, which took credit for brokering the ceasefire but has supported Israel’s decision to end it, to do everything possible to free the remaining captives.
“Our highest priority must be an immediate deal to bring ALL hostages back home – the living for rehabilitation and those killed for proper burial – and end this war,” the group said.
In addition to the 15 killed in northern Gaza, Israeli air strikes overnight into Wednesday killed another 28 people across the territory, according to local hospitals.
The Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis said the dead included five women, one of them pregnant, and two children. Israel claims it targets only militants and makes every effort to spare civilians.
Israel’s offensive has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Israel says it has killed around 20,000 militants, without providing evidence.
The war has left vast areas of Gaza in ruins and at its height displaced around 90% of the population.
