Israel warns Palestinians to avoid Gaza’s Netzarim Corridor
The Israel Defence Forces warned residents of Gaza to avoid the Netzarim Corridor on Thursday morning as ground operations continued.
An aerial view of the Netzarim Corridor in the central Gaza area of Nuseirat on Jan. 13, 2025. Photo by Elad Zagman/TPS-IL
“Over the past few hours, IDF forces have launched a limited ground operation in the central and southern Gaza Strip, with the aim of expanding the defensive zone between the northern and southern Gaza Strip. During the operation, forces deployed as far as the central Netzarim corridor,” Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic language spokesperson, tweeted.
Israeli forces blocked Gaza’s Salah ad-Din highway, the Strip’s main north-south highway on Wednesday to prevent Hamas movement between northern and southern Gaza.
The Netzarim corridor is a roughly seven-km-road running from east to west, that bisects the Strip. It crosses from Israel, at a point between Kibbutz Be’eri and Kibbutz Nahal Oz, and stretches to the Mediterranean. Israel’s withdrawal from the Netzarim Corridor was a key Hamas ceasefire demand.
“For your safety, it is prohibited to move on the Salah al-Din axis between the north and south of the Gaza Strip and vice versa,” Adraee tweeted. “Movement from the north of the sector to its south is only permitted via Rashid Road (sea).”
He also reiterated warnings to Palestinians not to approach soldiers.
Airstrikes launched by Israel on Tuesday ended a two-month ceasefire between Israel and the Iran-backed terror group.
Hamas insisted on the original ceasefire terms, which called for Israel’s full withdrawal from Gaza and a permanent end to the war in exchange for the remaining hostages. However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly vowed to continue operations until Hamas is dismantled. Talks over phase two of the agreement, set to begin February 3, never took place.
Despite this, the ceasefire held for weeks as mediators sought new terms. In early March, U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff proposed extending phase one of the ceasefire in exchange for the release of five hostages. However, he dismissed Hamas’s response to the proposal as unacceptable, warning of consequences if the group did not reconsider.
At least 1,180 people were killed, and 252 Israelis and foreigners were taken hostage in Hamas’s attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on October 7. Of the 59 remaining hostages, 36 are believed to be dead.
