Israel is seizing territory in Gaza, including an additional, strategic corridor, to pressure Hamas into releasing its remaining hostages, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday.
A ceasefire deal ended last month after Hamas refused to accept a deal that would have seen all the hostages freed in exchange for a final end to the war. There are more than 50 hostages still in Gaza, and perhaps two dozen who are still alive, including an American.
In a statement provided and translated by the Government Press Office, Netanyahu said:
Last night in the Gaza Strip, we switched gears. The IDF is seizing territory, striking the terrorists and destroying the infrastructure.
We are also doing something else: We are seizing the Morag Corridor. This will be the second Philadelphi, an additional Philadelphi Corridor.
Because we are now dividing the Strip and increasing the pressure step by step, so that they will give us our hostages. And as long as they do not give them to us, the pressure will increase until they do.
We are determined to achieve the objectives of the war, and we are acting relentlessly, and with a clear line and a clear mission.
And with G-d’s help and that of our heroic soldiers, we will also achieve them.
The Philadelphi Corridor is the road that runs along Gaza’s border with Egypt. The Morag corridor, named for a former Israeli settlement there, is slightly further north, but also cuts across the Strip in an east-west direction.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
