IDF says it’s gained ‘tactical control’ of Philadelphi corridor buffer zone

The corridor is a buffer zone and a no man’s land approximately nine miles long and several hundred yards wide that stretches from the southernmost tip of Gaza to the Mediterranean Sea. Israel has not had a troop presence along the border since 2005, when the country withdrew its forces from the Gaza Strip. The gain may complicate political relations with Cairo and risk undermining a landmark 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty — an accord that has led to a half-century of coexistence.

Elsewhere, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters in Moldova on Wednesday that Israel urgently needs a “clear plan” for after the war in Gaza ends that can ensure the enduring defeat of Hamas. His comments followed remarks from a senior Israeli official that suggested the war would probably last until the end of the year.

Speaking as Israel’s military expanded its offensive in the southern region of Rafah, Tzachi Hanegbi, Israel’s national security adviser, told Kan public radio Wednesday that he was expecting “another seven months of fighting” to destroy Hamas and other militant groups, adding that 2024 would be “a year of war.”

Asked about the comments, Blinken said that without a plan for the longer term future of Gaza, there is a risk of “chaos, lawlessness and a vacuum” that could allow a group more dangerous than Hamas to gain power.

Biden administration officials have said this week that Israel’s Rafah offensive — in particular a recent Israeli strike that killed at least 45 Palestinians at a tent encampment in Rafah — has not crossed President Biden’s “red line.”

Scenes of charred bodies and accounts of people burning alive prompted global condemnation of the Israeli strike Sunday. White House officials lamented the loss of life but said the attack did not exceed what Biden warned against when he said the United States would suspend delivery of offensive weapons to Israel if it went into “population centers” in Rafah.

Blinken called the incident “horrific,” noting that it has affected all people on a “basic human level.” He said he could not confirm reports U.S. weapons were used in the strike.

Eyewitnesses contacted by The Washington Post on Wednesday said Israeli tanks have pushed closer into central Rafah, accompanying an intense air operation that has led to what they described as a near-constant thud of airstrikes or other explosions. Responding to questions about those reports, the Israeli military said Wednesday that it “does not share the location of its forces.”

The witnesses said tanks were near the Awda roundabout in central Rafah and had taken up positions in western parts of the city including the Tal al-Sultan neighborhood, the site of Sunday’s strikes.

Israeli forces expanded a cordon around Rafah on Wednesday, according to Mohammad al-Mughair of the civil defense forces in Gaza. “We expect that the Tal al-Sultan camp will be stormed,” Mughair said. Residents in that western neighborhood said Israeli forces were increasing surveillance of the area using unmanned vehicles.

Overnight Tuesday, many of the families sheltering in neighborhoods along Rafah’s western border with Egypt fled north after hearing the sounds of fighting move closer. Nearly 1 million people have fled Rafah in the past three weeks even though there was “nowhere safe to go,” according to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which aids Palestinian refugees.

Aid groups warned that Israel’s offensive in Rafah makes relief efforts nearly impossible, with World Central Kitchen announcing Wednesday that ongoing attacks had forced it to suspend its main kitchen there.

At least 21 people were killed in a tent encampment near Rafah’s coast on Tuesday by what a spokesman for Gaza’s civil defense said was Israeli artillery fire. The Israeli military said in a statement Tuesday that it “did not strike in the humanitarian area in al-Mawasi,” referring to a zone along Gaza’s coast. Witnesses said the strikes occurred just south of the humanitarian zone.

The Pentagon announced it has suspended aid delivery to Gaza via a U.S.-built floating pier, after mishaps occurred involving beached U.S. military vessels and sections of the structure ripped free in bad weather. The damage will require the U.S. military to disassemble parts of the pier, rebuild them at the nearby Ashdod port, then transport them back to the Gaza shore and reconnect them.

The Israeli military on Tuesday announced preliminary results of an investigation into Sunday’s deadly strike in Rafah, which it said targeted two senior Hamas militants and used “the smallest munition that our jets can use,” described as 37 pounds in weight. It said the ongoing probe was looking into whether “secondary explosions” linked to “weapons stored in a compound next to our target” ignited a deadly blaze.

A career State Department official involved in the Biden administration’s debates over Israel’s conduct in Gaza resigned this week, citing disagreements with a recently published U.S. government report that claimed Israel was not impeding humanitarian assistance to Gaza, two officials told The Washington Post. The outgoing official, Stacy Gilbert, served in the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration. Gilbert sent an email to staff explaining her view that the State Department was wrong to conclude Israel has not obstructed the assistance to Gaza, officials who read the letter said.

At least 36,171 people have been killed and 81,420 injured in Gaza since the war started, said the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says the majority of the dead are women and children. Israel estimates about 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack, including more than 300 soldiers, and it says 290 soldiers have been killed since the launch of its military operations in Gaza.

Lior Soroka, Kareem Fahim, Claire Parker and Hajar Harb contributed to this report.