Israeli army forces have fully mastered the so-called Morag axis that runs through the southern Gaza Strip from east to west, paving the way between the towns of Rafah and Khan Younis, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) press office said on Sunday, claiming that with the completion of the operation, the military has completed the encirclement of the town of Rafah.
Israel announces completion of Morag “security corridor” to cut off Rafah from rest of Gaza
“Over the past 24 hours, the 36th Division’s troops completed the establishment of the Morag route, separating Rafah and Khan Younis. During operations here over the past week and a half, the troops eliminated dozens of terrorists, destroyed an underground network of tunnels and facilities of the Hamas terrorist organisation, and completed the encirclement of Rafah,” the statement said.
The Press Service also noted that the IDF will continue to establish operational control over the central axis in the Gaza Strip and will carry out counter-terrorism operations in the area.
On April 5, the army press service announced that the Israeli military had launched an operation in the area of the so-called Morag axis for the first time.
On April 2, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel was taking control of the Morag axis in the Gaza Strip. According to him, this axis will become a “second Philadelphia corridor,” which is a buffer zone of about 15 kilometres on the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt.
On March 18, the Israeli army resumed military action in Gaza, launching heavy strikes on the enclave and interrupting the ceasefire established in January. Netanyahu’s office attributed the decision to Hamas’ rejection of proposals made by mediators and US Presidential Special Envoy Steven Whitkoff, noting that the goal of the operation in the Strip was the release of all hostages. Radical groups have blamed Israel and the US for the resumption of hostilities.
Israel’s army says it will fire air force reservists who condemned war in Gaza
The Israeli Air Force has announced the dismissal of reserve pilots currently on active duty who signed a letter calling for the release of hostages, even at the cost of ending the war in Gaza. The command’s decision was backed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who called such statements inexcusable.
The petition, published on Thursday in several leading Israeli newspapers, was signed by about 1,000 reservists and retired pilots, but only about 60 of them are active reservists, meaning they are currently in the army, the Israeli military explained.
After the petition was published, the command decided to dismiss all the reservists who signed it, saying that soldiers cannot use the “Israel Air Force brand” to protest political issues.
The petition challenges the policies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who insists that increasing military pressure on Gaza is the only way to force Palestinian militants to release hostages taken during a Hamas attack in October 2023.
The shelling of Gaza continues
Medics say ten members of one family have been killed in a strike on Khan Younis in the south. Locals say Khan Younis and nearby Rafah have come under heavy shelling and airstrikes.
For its part, the IDF military said it managed to eliminate sniper commander and one of the Hamas militants Ahmad Iyad Muhammad Farhat during the Rafah operation.
“Farhat was responsible for planning and carrying out sniper attacks against IDF soldiers, as well as other terrorist activities against the State of Israel,” the IDF said.
Hamas militants took 251 hostages during the October 7 attack on Israel, 58 of whom are still being held in Gaza. The Israeli military believes 34 of them have died.
The truce, which lasted from January 19 to March 17, called for the return of 33 Israeli hostages, including the bodies of eight of them, in exchange for the release of some 1,800 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails. Attempts to restore the truce and release more hostages have so far failed.
The IDF said that it was continuing ground operations in southern Gaza and that it had succeeded in “dismantling dozens of terrorist infrastructure sites and several tunnel shafts leading to underground terrorist networks in the area.”
