The IDF’s withdrawal yesterday from the Netzarim corridor in Gaza is a major step. It is being covered by news agencies all over the world because it is seen as an important and symbolic event.
The BBC reported that Israel withdrew from the corridor that “split Gaza in two,” while CNN reported, “Israel completes withdrawal from key road dividing Gaza as part of [the] ceasefire deal.” This is seen as a victory by Hamas and Iran; for Israel, it is a major bookend to a key part of the war effort.
The IDF occupied the Netzarim corridor already in the first hours of the ground offensive that began on October 27, 2023, 20 days after the Hamas massacre on October 7. The 36th Division rushed across Gaza to hook up with units coming from the North along the coast. The operation was fast, and illustrated the military’s war of maneuver at its best.
The corridor was named after Netzarim, a former Jewish community that was evacuated in 2005 along with settlements in northern Samaria. The corridor had been used before 2005 by the IDF to easily split Gaza, with Gaza City to the north and central Gaza to the south.
The major way for Gazans to move from the center to the north runs through this very area, which includes Rashid Road on the coast and Salah al-Din Road in the center. By splitting these roads, the IDF controlled movement. Throughout the war, the army often called on Gazans to leave northern Gaza and move south. While some of them did, hundreds of thousands refused to leave.
The fighting in some areas, like Jabalya, became intense. In other areas, the IDF never fully entered parts of northern Gaza. Some neighborhoods saw limited incursions or bombings, such as Daraj, Tuffah, Rimal, and Shati, while others were witness to numerous operations from the corridor, such as Zeitun.
The purpose of control over the corridor
Once the IDF settled into the corridor, it patrolled it using an armored brigade paired with an infantry brigade, as a division would be rotated in and out – the 252nd and 99th – along with various reservist infantry and armored units. Each tried to add a bit to the corridor, expanding it on each side, and a road was constructed along with some earthen strong points. A concrete area was even built near the coast so that aid items from the temporary US pier could be dropped off. The pier was a failure, however, and operated only for around a month in the spring of 2024.
THE IDF never fully knew what it wanted to do with the corridor. When Gazans left Gaza City to head south, they were not searched. This likely enabled Hamas to move personnel and perhaps even hostages south in the early days of the war. Hamas concentrated itself in Nuseirat, Deir al-Balah, Maghzai, and Bureij, south of the corridor in the central camps. This became the Hamas rump state from which the terrorist group continued to govern Gaza.
With only a few exceptions, the IDF left Hamas intact in the center of Gaza, like in the Nuseirat hostage raid in June, which freed four hostages. There was also the unfortunate killing of the World Central Kitchen members on a road near Deir al-Balah. For the most part, though, the corridor and the areas near it were not the scene of intense fighting.
The IDF and the high command never figured out what to do with the corridor. Sometimes, it was used to facilitate the entry of trucks, as they would pass through along with medical personnel. Eventually, a system to secure all those entering this area was sorted out, but the corridor was not utilized to defeat Hamas in central Gaza or Gaza City itself.
This enabled the terrorist group to survive in the Strip. In the end, the Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal kicked in, and Hamas re-emerged; it has now returned to the corridor, though there are still some issues to be worked out, such as the movement of vehicles.
Iran is, overall, happy with these developments, with IRNA saying that the Netzarim withdrawal “marks yet another failure for the occupying regime in achieving its declared war goals in Gaza. Hamas said that the return of the displaced Palestinian people to their homes” and the ongoing deal “refuses [Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu’s claim of achieving victory in the enclave,” reads the report. Hamas stated, “Gaza will remain a land liberated by the hands of its people and its fighters, and forbidden to the occupying invaders and any external force.”
What becomes of the Netzarim corridor is anyone’s guess. Hamas might go into it and begin to build up terrorist infrastructure again. It could also leave it as is, expecting the IDF to return. Or, Hamas might move into the corridor to rebuild roads and homes. The corridor is a large open space, which the IDF cleared a large area around to secure, including destroying buildings and orchards in the way.
As military strategy and tactics go, the corridor was a tactical victory. However, as with the rest of Gaza, it was a temporary tactical victory and lacked strategy.