IDF fully surrounds Rafah as Katz warns Gazans of ‘final moment to remove Hamas’
Army says it is in complete control of Morag Corridor, cutting off Strip’s southernmost city from Khan Younis, where some Gazans ordered to leave after 3 rockets fired at border town shot down
The Israel Defense Forces announced at noon Saturday that it had completed the capture of the Morag Corridor in the southern Gaza Strip, cutting off the city of Rafah from Khan Younis.
The military said Rafah was now surrounded by its forces, with the 36th Division holding the Morag Corridor and the Gaza Division operating in the Philadelphi Corridor along the Egypt-Gaza border area.
Defense Minister Israel Katz called on Palestinians to “remove Hamas and release all the hostages” before the military further expands its operations in the Strip.
“This is the final moment to remove Hamas and release the hostages and bring about an end to the war,” Katz said in a statement. “Intensive IDF activity will soon expand to additional places in most of Gaza, and you will have to evacuate the combat zones.”
Also on Saturday, three rockets launched from Gaza at the border community of Nir Yitzhak were intercepted by air defenses, the military said. The rocket fire set off alerts in open areas but not in any towns. No one was hurt.
In response to the rocket fire, the IDF issued an evacuation order for Palestinians in the Khan Younis area. In a post on X, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, Col. Avichay Adraee, published a map of the area to be evacuated, saying that it was a “final warning” before the IDF carried out strikes there.
Inside Gaza, the 36th Division’s 188th Armored Brigade pushed into the Morag Corridor from the northwest, while the division’s Golani Infantry Brigade entered from the border in the southeast. Overnight, the two units joined up.
Engineering forces were now constructing a road along the corridor, similar to other Gaza corridors captured by the IDF during the war.
The military said it would now operate inside areas of Rafah that it had not previously entered to defeat the remaining Hamas forces there. The IDF issued evacuation warnings for civilians in Rafah nearly two weeks ago.
Eventually, the IDF’s buffer zone in southern Gaza will stretch from the Egyptian border to the outskirts of Khan Younis — more than 5 kilometers away — and include the entire city of Rafah within it, totaling around 20% of the Strip.
The IDF’s buffer zone elsewhere along the border with Gaza has also been expanded from several hundred meters to around 2 kilometers in most areas.
Katz, in his Saturday statement to Gazans, said, “Hamas is unable to protect the residents or the territory. Hamas leaders are hiding in tunnels with their families and in luxury hotels abroad with billions in their bank accounts and are using you as hostages.
“It is time to stand up and remove Hamas and release all the Israeli hostages. This is the only way to end the war,” he continued, adding that “those interested will also be able to voluntarily move to various countries around the world, in accordance with the vision of the US president, which we are working to carry out.”
Over the past week and a half, during operations in the Morag Corridor area, the IDF says it has eliminated dozens of terror operatives and destroyed Hamas infrastructure, including tunnels.
On Friday, two soldiers were wounded in southern Gaza, one of them seriously, as troops expanded control in the area. An officer was moderately wounded in an exchange of fire with gunmen, with three gunmen killed. Separately, a soldier was seriously injured, apparently from an accidental discharge of a bullet.
The IDF also said Friday that a Hamas sniper commander in Rafah was killed in a recent strike. Ahmad Iyad Muhammad Farhat, the commander of the Hamas terror group’s sniper forces in the terror group’s Tel Sultan Battalion in Rafah, was responsible for advancing and carrying out numerous attacks on Israeli troops in Gaza and against Israel, the IDF said.
The military has struck dozens of targets across Gaza in the past few days, including cells of operatives, buildings used by terror groups, weapons, and other infrastructure.
Also, on Friday, the IDF issued an evacuation warning for Palestinians residing in some areas of eastern Gaza City.
In a post on X, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, Col. Avichay Adraee, published a map of the area to be evacuated, which includes the neighborhoods of Shejaiya, Zeitoun, and Tuffah.
He said that the military would soon operate “with great force” there to “destroy terror infrastructure.” Civilians were called to head for shelters in western Gaza City.
#عاجل ‼️ انذار عاجل وتحذير خطير الى جميع سكان قطاع غزة المتواجدين في منطقة الشجاعية وأحياء اجديدة، التركمان، توسعة نفوذ، الزيتون الشرقي, النور والتفاح
⭕️جيش الدفاع يعمل بقوة شديدة في مناطقكم لتدمير البنى التحتية الإرهابية.
⭕️من أجل سلامتكم عليكم اخلاء هذه المناطق فوراً… pic.twitter.com/mcO5XThOOV— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) April 11, 2025
On Saturday, the IDF said it expanded operations in area overnight, with troops pushing into Tuffah and the Daraj neighborhood.
The military said the operation was intended to expand the buffer zone along the Gaza border.
So far, the IDF said troops killed several terror operatives and destroyed observation posts, tunnels, and other Hamas infrastructure.
The IDF added that it was enabling Palestinian civilians to evacuate the area “for their safety.”
The war in Gaza began on October 7, 2023, when some 5,000 Hamas-led terrorists invaded southern Israel from the Gaza Strip, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages amid acts of brutality and sexual assault.
Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are still holding 59 hostages — 24 of whom are believed to be alive, and 35 of whom have been confirmed dead — including 58 of those abducted on October 7.
According to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, more than 50,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far. The toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters.
Israel assesses it has killed about 20,000 combatants in Gaza as of January, as well as some 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the Hamas onslaught.
Israel’s toll in the Gaza ground offensive and military operations along the border stands at 410.
The Times of Israel Community.