GAZA CITY: Israeli forces completed the encirclement of Gaza’s Rafah, the military said on Saturday as part of an announced plan to seize more areas of the enclave, accompanied by large-scale evacuations of the Palestinian population.

Israel said troops had begun seizing the area, it called the Morag Axis, in southern Gaza on April 2, forcing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to flee Rafah that borders Egypt to the south. “Over the past 24 hours, the 36th Division’s troops completed the establishment of the Morag route, separating Rafah and Khan Younis,” the Israeli military said on Saturday.

The seizure of the “Morag axis” came while Hamas expected “real progress” towards a ceasefire deal to end the war in Gaza, an official from the group said, with senior leaders from the Palestinian movement scheduled to hold talks with Egyptian mediators in Cairo later on Saturday.

“The IDF (military) has now completed its takeover of the Morag axis, which crosses Gaza between Rafah and Khan Yunis, turning the entire area between the Philadelphi Route (along the border with Egypt) and Morag into part of the Israeli security zone,” Defence Minister Israel Katz claimed in a statement addressed to residents of Gaza.

Capture of ‘Morag Axis’ comes amid Cairo talks for ceasefire

The military also announced a sweeping evacuation order for tens of thousands of residents of Khan Yunis and surrounding areas in southern Gaza.

“Soon, IDF operations will intensify and expand to other areas throughout most of Gaza, and you will need to evacuate the combat zones.

“In northern Gaza as well — in Beit Hanoun and other neighbourhoods — residents are evacuating, the area is being taken over and the security zone is being expanded, including in the Netzarim corridor,” the minister added.

Cairo talks

Since a ceasefire brokered in January collapsed in mid-March, Israel’s renewed offensive in Gaza has killed more than 1,500 Palestinians, displaced hundreds of thousands of people while the military has seized large swathes of the war-battered territory.

Top Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have repeatedly said that the ongoing assault aims to pressure Hamas into freeing the remaining 58 Israeli prisoners held in Gaza.

Hamas said the offensive not only “kills defenceless civilians but also makes the fate of the occupation’s prisoners uncertain”.

The United Nations had warned a day before that expanding Israeli evacuation orders were resulting in the “forcible transfer” of people into ever-shrinking areas, raising “real concern as to the future viability of Palestinians as a group in Gaza”.

On Saturday, a Hamas delegation and Egyptian mediators were to meet in Cairo. “We hope the meeting will achieve real progress towards reaching an agreement to end the war, halt the aggression and ensure the full withdrawal of occupation forces from Gaza,” a Hamas official familiar with the ceasefire negotiations said on condition of anonymity.

According to him, Hamas has not yet received any new ceasefire proposals, despite Israeli media reports suggesting that Israel and Egypt had exchanged draft documents outlining a potential ceasefire and prisoner release agreement.

“However, contacts and discussions with mediators are ongoing,” he added, accusing Israel of “continuing its aggression” in Gaza.

Strikes continue

Egypt’s proposal would involve the release of eight living Israeli prisoners and eight bodies, in exchange for a truce lasting between 40 and 70 days and a substantial release of Palestinian prisoners, according to the Times of Israel.

US President Donald Trump said during a cabinet meeting this week that “we’re getting close to getting them (prisoners in Gaza) back”.

Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff was also quoted in an Israeli media report as saying “a very serious deal is taking shape, it’s a matter of days”.

Since Israel resumed its Gaza strikes, more than 1,500 people have been killed, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory to which Israel cut off aid more than a month ago.

Dozens of these strikes have killed “only women and children,” the UN human rights office said on Friday.

AFP footage of the aftermath of a strike on Saturday showed the bodies of four men, wrapped in white shrouds, at a local hospital, while several individuals gathered to offer prayers before the funeral.

Since October 2023, when Israel intensified Gaza offensive, 50,933 Palestinians have been killed.

Published in Dawn, April 13th, 2025