The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday joined the first media visit to Gaza since the January 19 ceasefire and the renewal of hostilities on March 18.
The focus of the visit was touring the Morag Corridor, which the IDF is building into a strategic route for cutting off the deep southern Gaza region of Rafah from the mid-southern Gaza region of Khan Yunis.
The IDF's 36th Division, led by Brig.-Gen. Moran Omer, is spearheading the project to expand the Morag Corridor area into a series of military positions and clear a large portion of Palestinian structures in the area to make it impossible to mount a surprise attack above land without being seen.
Moran and Southern Command chief Maj.-Gen. Yaniv Asor also joined the visit.
The IDF said the full length of the corridor could stretch up to 12 km. with a width of a minimum of 300 meters in all directions and could take a few months to complete. This includes demolishing many nearby structures, which could obscure the vision of IDF soldiers guarding the corridor.
On the way to the lookout and meeting point, the Post saw areas of the Philadelphi Corridor and Rafah, which were completely destroyed and flattened, with no structures visible in the vicinity.
Closing in on the meeting point in the northern region of Rafah, there were more structures still standing, though the destruction nearby was still extensive, and it appears that the IDF plan is to demolish most of the remaining structures other than those deemed necessary for its own continued operations.
The corridor's purpose
The purpose of the new corridor series of military positions – which joins the Netzarim Corridor that cuts off Khan Yunis and Rafah from northern Gaza, as well as the Philadelphi Corridor that separates Egypt and Gaza – is to make it easier for the IDF to defeat Hamas’s remaining forces in Rafah.
IDF sources said Hamas currently has two battalions in Rafah.
That is a far cry from the 4,000-8,000 Hamas fighters who were in Rafah before the IDF’s first invasion of the area in May 2024, but it is still not clear of organized Hamas military resistance.
Defense Minister Israel Katz told the small group of Israeli journalists during the visit that the purpose is to “increase the pressure [on Hamas] to release the hostages and to build a bridge for the continuation of operations for defeating Hamas.”
“The IDF is achieving significant goals: evacuating the [Palestinian civilian] population, destroying [terror] infrastructure, segmenting Gaza in new areas in which it had not operated at any prior point in the war, eliminating tunnels, and soon establishing a new corridor... which will cut off the connection between Khan Yunis and Rafah. This will help our operations and make things harder for Hamas,” said Katz.
MOREOVER, the defense minister stated that though during the ceasefire, Hamas was only willing to release one living hostage to continue any deal that did not include an Israeli promise to end the war, following the renewed hostilities and the establishment of the Morag Corridor, Hamas has upped its offer of hostages for such a temporary ceasefire to five and now eight living hostages.
He added that creating the Morag Corridor and other current IDF operations were making the probability of a new hostage deal according to Israel’s terms higher than it was during the ceasefire.
Finally, Katz said there were no plans to restore humanitarian aid deliveries to Gaza, given that the immense aid they received during the ceasefire was sufficient for a period of additional months. Some observers say the already delivered aid was enough for three months from when aid was cut off around a month ago, and some say it was enough for close to half a year.
Further, the IDF said that creating the Morag Corridor has altered Hamas’s calculations about the future as it has led to a mass re-evacuation of the Palestinian civilian population from Rafah back to the al-Mawasi humanitarian area.
According to the IDF, at the start of the war, Hamas’s highest priority was any military achievements it could attain by killing IDF soldiers in battle or ambushes in Gaza or by killing Israeli civilians with its then-massive rocket arsenal.
At this point, Hamas is barely putting up any military fights against the IDF invasion and is barely firing any rockets on Israeli civilians but is highly concerned about trying to permanently return its civilian population to their residential areas to show it can still assert control and governance over the enclave.
Put differently, if, at the start of the war, Hamas wanted to impress all parties with its military prowess, it has given up on that front and is now mostly just hoping that it does not lose the battle for political control over Gaza’s population.
IDF sources said Hamas’s weapons manufacturing capabilities have been hit hard by IDF actions but that it still retains a variety of makeshift facilities and that having more forces in the Morag Corridor will make it easier to act speedily against such facilities when they are discovered and before Hamas manufacturers are able to escape.
The IDF said that since the renewed hostilities began on March 18-19, it had killed 300 Hamas terrorists and struck 1,000 targets connected to Gaza terror. The 36th Division, which only entered Gaza more recently, has killed around 75 terrorists and struck around 145 targets.