‘We’re reducing up the strip’: Israel deploys troops to new hall throughout southern Gaza

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel says troops have deployed to a newly established safety hall throughout southern Gaza to stress the Hamas militant group.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday introduced the brand new Morag Hall and urged it will minimize off the southern metropolis of Rafah, which Israel has ordered evacuated, from the remainder of Gaza.

READ MORE: Netanyahu says Israel will set up a brand new safety hall throughout Gaza to stress Hamas

A army assertion Saturday stated troops with the thirty sixth Division had been deployed within the hall. It was not instantly clear what number of had deployed or the place precisely the hall was positioned. Morag is the identify of a Jewish settlement that when stood between Rafah and Khan Younis, and Netanyahu urged it will run between the cities.

Maps printed by Israeli media confirmed the brand new hall working the width of the slender coastal strip from east to west.

Netanyahu stated it will be “a second Philadelphi hall,” referring to the Gaza aspect of the border with Egypt additional south, which has been below Israeli management since final Could.

Israel has additionally reasserted management over the Netzarim hall that cuts off the northern third of Gaza, together with Gaza Metropolis, from the remainder of the strip. The Philadelphi and Netzarim corridors run from the Israeli border to the Mediterranean Sea.

“We’re reducing up the strip, and we’re rising the stress step-by-step, in order that they’ll give us our hostages,” Netanyahu stated Wednesday.

The newest announcement got here shortly after a White Home official confirmed that Netanyahu on Monday would once more meet with President Donald Trump, their second assembly on the White Home since Trump took workplace in January.

Final month, Israel shattered the ceasefire in Gaza with a shock bombardment after making an attempt to stress Hamas to just accept proposed new phrases for the truce that had taken maintain in January. The White Home supported Israel’s transfer.

Netanyahu’s protection minister stated Israel would seize massive areas of Gaza and add them to its so-called safety zones.

Israel has pledged to escalate the battle with Hamas till the militant group returns the remaining hostages taken within the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led assault that sparked the battle, disarms and leaves the territory.

Israel final month once more halted all provides of meals, gas and humanitarian support to Gaza.

Related Press author Fatima Hussein in West Palm Seaside, Florida, contributed.