Buildings that were destroyed during the Israeli ground and air operations stand in northern of Gaza Strip as seen from southern Israel. AP
The Israeli army turned the entire area between the Philadelphi Route and Morag into part of the Israeli security zone, Katz said in a statement.
He added that the occupation forces will intensify and expand to other areas throughout most of Gaza. "You will need to evacuate the combat zones," Katz said addressing to the Palestinian population.
Early on Friday, the Israeli army issued another "urgent and serious" evacuation order to residents in several areas east of Gaza City, part of repeated orders that aid and rights groups have decried as ethnic cleansing.
In a separate statement, Israel said its forces had "deepened ground activity in the Morag Corridor" overnight.
Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the new Morag Corridor and suggested it would cut off the southern city of Rafah from the rest of Gaza.
Israeli troops from the 36th Division were deployed, the Associated Press reported, citing an army statement. It was not immediately clear how many troops were involved or the exact location of the new corridor.
Morag is the name of a former colonial Israeli settlement in the Palestinian Strip, that once stood between Rafah and Khan Younis, and Netanyahu had suggested the corridor would run between the two cities
Maps published by Israeli media showed the corridor running the width of the narrow coastal strip from east to west, AP reported.
Netanyahu had said it would be “a second Philadelphi corridor,” referring to the Gaza side of the border with Egypt farther south, which Israel occupied since last May.
Last month, Israel shattered a ceasefire in Gaza with a surprise bombardment after trying to pressure Hamas to accept proposed new terms for the truce that had taken hold in January, instead of moving of the second phase of the deal.
Killing hundreds of civilians and reimposing its siege of Palestinian territory, Israel quickly reasserted control over the Netzarim corridor, which cuts off the northern third of Gaza, including Gaza City, from the rest of the strip.
The Philadelphi and Netzarim corridors extend from the Israeli border to the Mediterranean Sea.
"We are cutting up the strip, and we are increasing the pressure step by step," Netanyahu said Wednesday, claiming that the aim of carving up the strip into smaller cantons, despite sidestepping negotiations with Hamas.
In tandem, his Defense Minister said Tel Aviv would seize large areas of Gaza and add them to its so-called security zones, while Israel's carpet bombing has destroyed 72 percent of homes and most of Gaza’s schools and hospitals.
With tens of billions of dollars in arms supplied by the US, Israel has killed at least 50,886 people and wounded more than 115,875, the majority of them women and children.
Thousands more are believed to be trapped under the rubble of flattened buildings.
*This story was edited by Ahram Online.
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