Netanyahu says pressure on Hamas to increase as military expands Gaza operation

Reuters. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday (April 2) the major expansion of military operations in Gaza was meant to increase pressure on militant group Hamas to release the remaining hostages.

 

“We are now dividing the Strip and increasing the pressure step by step, so that they will give us our hostages,” Netanyahu said in a statement.

 

He added that the army would establish a new security corridor and called it the “Morag corridor”.

 

In a statement earlier on Wednesday, Defence Minister Israel Katz said evacuations would take place from areas where there was fighting, while urging Gazans to eliminate Hamas and return Israeli hostages as the only way to end the war.

 

The Israeli military had already issued evacuation warnings to Gazans living in some southern districts and Palestinian radio reported that the area around Rafah was almost completely empty following the evacuation orders.

 

Gaza’s Health Ministry said at least 60 people were killed in Israeli strikes on Wednesday, with 19 people including children killed in a strike at a U.N. clinic being used to house displaced people.