The Israeli army said on Saturday it had completed the siege of the Gaza Strip city of Rafah, in an attempt to take control of as many parts of the Palestinian enclave as possible.
Israel has repeatedly ordered hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Rafah to leave since it resumed operations in Gaza on March 18, forcing them to move into an increasingly narrow area, bordered by the sea.
On April 2, Israel announced that its army had begun to take control of an area it called the Morag Axis, referring to a former Israeli settlement located between the cities of Rafah and Khan Yunis, in southern Gaza.
Since then, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been forced to flee Rafah, a 60-square-kilometer area bordering Egypt to the south.
"Over the past 24 hours, troops of the 36th Division completed the creation of the Morag road, separating Rafah and Khan Yunis," the army said on Saturday.
Israel launched the war in Gaza after the Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were kidnapped, according to Israeli authorities.
Hamas is designated a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.
Since then, more than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli war, according to health authorities in the Hamas-controlled enclave. Most of the population has been displaced and much of Gaza has been destroyed.
Israel resumed its Gaza offensive in March, after abandoning a ceasefire that had been in place since January. According to Israel, the campaign will continue until the remaining 59 hostages are released and Hamas is driven out of Gaza.
Hamas has said it will only release the hostages in accordance with a deal that would end the war and has rejected demands to hand over its weapons. (A2 Televizion)
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