Netanyahu says Israel will 'divide up' Gaza

Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel is "seizing territory" and intends to "divide up" the Gaza Strip by building a new security corridor, amid a major expansion of aerial and ground operations in the besieged Palestinian territory.

- Bethan McKernan

"Tonight, we have shifted gears in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli army is seizing territory, hitting the terrorists and destroying the infrastructure," the prime minister said in a video statement yesterday evening. "We are also doing another thing - seizing the 'Morag route'. This will be the second Philadelphia route, another Philadelphia route," he said, referring to an Israeli-held corridor along the Egypt-Gaza border.

"Because we are currently dividing up the strip, we are adding pressure step by step, so that our hostages will be given to us," he added.

The comments came as a forensic doctor who examined the bodies of some of the 15 paramedics and Palestinian rescue workers shot dead by Israeli forces last month said there was evidence of execution-style killing, based on the "specific and intentional" location of shots at close range.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has seized buffer zones around Gaza's edges totaling 24 sq miles, or 17% of the strip, since the war began in October 2023, according to the Israeli human rights group Gisha. The Netzarim corridor, named after a defunct Israeli settlement, now cuts off Gaza City from the south of the strip, and Philadelphia is the Israeli codename for the Gaza-Egypt border.

Morag was a Jewish settlement that once stood between Rafah and Khan Younis, suggesting the new corridor is designed to separate the two southern cities.

The Israeli prime minister's announcement follows remarks earlier yesterday from his defense minister, Israel Katz, that the Israeli army would "seize large areas" of the Gaza Strip, necessitating large-scale civilian evacuations.