Along the newly established Morag Corridor, in the southern Gaza Strip, the IDF is continuing the daily, Sisyphean work of rooting out Hamas fighters and destroying the organization’s infrastructure.
The corridor, named after a dismantled Jewish community in the area, is intended to drive a wedge between the Rafah and Khan Yunis brigades of Hamas, and then to destroy these formations.
Visiting the eastern part of the corridor, the impression was that the Israeli forces have succeeded in carving out a secure area, from which they are now operating southwards in the direction of Rafah city, where, according to IDF sources, dozens of fighters of Hamas’s Rafah Brigade remain.
Whether these actions will contribute to the final collapse of Hamas resistance in Gaza, or place sufficient pressure on the Palestinian Islamist group to induce a more flexible stance on the remaining hostages (the two goals of the operation, according to the IDF) is less clear.
The force tasked with establishing and consolidating the Morag corridor is the 36th Armored Division, a regular formation of the IDF. With a long and storied history, the Division has been in action since the start of the current war in October 2023.
It took part in the first ground maneuver in Gaza in late 2023, spearheading the IDF’s entry into the Strip alongside the 162nd Division (which is now operating further south, close to the Egyptian border.) The 36th then participated in the fighting in Lebanon, operating in the Maroun a Ras area.
Now it is back in Gaza. One of its armored brigades, the 7th, has remained on duty in the north. The other component parts of the division, the Golani infantry Brigade, the 188 armored and the 282nd artillery regiment, have been engaged for the last three weeks in carving out the corridor.
Golani began the push from the east, and the 188 from the west, according to the IDF. They linked up after a week, and are now engaged in consolidating and broadening the 12km corridor, the intention of which is to seal in and then destroy the remnants of Hamas’s Rafah Brigade. In places, according to the IDF, the corridor is already 2km wide.
Inside the corridor, the by now familiar wartime Gaza combination of destroyed buildings, rubble, and a near complete absence of civilians prevails. To the south, exploding ordnance can be heard, and palls of white smoke can be seen every few minutes. This is Battalion 12 of Golani, and Battalion 53 of the 188th, conducting operations into Jnene, one of the three areas designated for the attention of the forces in the corridor in the coming days.
The Hamas fighters, according to IDF sources, made their way to Muwasi to the west, a designated humanitarian area, during the period of the ceasefire, but returned when it collapsed. Now, the hope is to trap them between two lines of IDF presence to the north and south of the city.
Hamas's Rafah brigade dismantled, but attempting to rebuild
The IDF says the Rafah brigade no longer has any discernible missile capacity. Even a hierarchical structure beyond the lowest levels may no longer be fully functioning. Still, Hamas is trying to build itself up again as quickly as possible.
Younger people, some only 15 years old, are being brought in. These youths are rapidly deployed and display the’ professional capacities that would be expected of them,’ as one IDF source put it.
IDF Spokesman Brigadier-General Effi Deffrin, speaking to reporters inside Gaza, reiterated the familiar goals of the war: increasing the pressure on Hamas to ensure the release of the remaining hostages, and toppling the movement militarily and politically. The question of whether these goals can be achieved simultaneously is a matter, of course, for the politicians, not the soldiers. Deffrin said the army will continue to put pressure on Hamas, which is what this formula requires.
As to whether this pressure is working, a senior IDF source in Gaza discerned signs of what he described as growing popular discontent against Hamas.
A year ago, he suggested, residents of Gaza wouldn’t have dared to raise a finger against representatives of the Islamist authority. Six months ago, masked men killed a Hamas policeman. More recently, policemen were attacked by Gazans who no longer made any attempt to hide their identity.
These, the source suggested, were encouraging signs. Victory would come, he said, when the last of Hamas’s leaders were dragged through the streets by their own people.
Whether the current IDF pressure will prove sufficient to increase and proliferate such scenes across Gaza remains very much to be seen.
Hamas has demonstrated that it is not yet broken, and still has the ability to recruit new personnel and deploy them. The troops now operating from the Morag Corridor are engaged in the latest engagement in the battle of wills underway since October 7, 2023. Who will break first remains the question. “All my years of service, I was involved in ‘rounds’ of fighting,” an IDF source in Gaza told the Jerusalem Post.
“This mustn’t be another round. The difference between us and the enemy is that he is better at maintaining a facade than we are. But there are demonstrations and indications of a breaking point on the other side. It won't happen tomorrow morning, but it's coming.” In the meantime, the extension of the Morag corridor continues.
