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Morag Corridor aims to 'break connection' between Rafah and Khan Younis, Israeli military says

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The Israeli military's new corridor across southern Gaza is designed to cut off any connection between Khan Younis and Rafah, a spokesman said on Thursday.

Troops started operating in the so-called Morag Corridor overnight on Tuesday, including areas in which the army had not yet fought and where “Hamas still has capabilities”, the military's international spokesman Nadav Shoshani said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the creation of the corridor in a speech on Wednesday evening. “We are cutting up the strip and we are increasing the pressure step by step, so that they will give us our hostages,” he said, referring to Israelis seized by Hamas during the attack on October 7, 2023 that triggered the war in Gaza.

Defence Minister Israel Katz warned earlier of a major expansion of the military operations, saying “large areas” of Gaza would be taken and added to Israel's security zones.

Mr Shoshani said the corridor would give Israel “an ability to act decisively against terror defensively and offensively”, and would make it easier for troops to “distinguish between terrorists and civilians”.

He said the military was “working to break” the connection between Rafah and Khan Younis, one of the most important areas of operation during the war. He highlighted the killing of then-Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in Rafah last October, after a long period in which he was thought to have been sheltering in Khan Younis.

Mr Shoshani said the military was also operating in the Tel Al Sultan area of Rafah where Mr Sinwar was killed, and where he claimed Hamas operatives had regrouped and rearmed during nine weeks of a ceasefire that ended last month.

Mr Netanyahu described the Morag as “the second Philadelphi Corridor”, the Israeli name for the Salah Al Din, a strip of land along the Gaza side of its southern border with Egypt seized by Israel last May. He has repeatedly said control of the area is vital to cutting off Hamas’s supply of weapons.

The new corridor derives its name from the area of where an Israeli settlement stood before the withdrawal from Gaza in 2005.

Israel's military last year created the Netzarim Corridor to separate southern and central Gaza from the north of the strip, preventing displaced Palestinian residents who were forced to move south in the early days of the war from returning to their homes in the north. Israeli troops withdrew from Netzarim after a ceasefire deal with Hamas took hold on January 19 but reclaimed control after resuming attacks on Gaza on March 18.

Military strategy

While the goal of the corridors might appear to be simply to divide Gaza into three areas, the move is part of a wider strategy that prepares Israel for the full occupation of Gaza in the event that Hamas does not agree to its terms for ending the war, said Kobi Michael, a senior researcher at Israel's Institute for National Security Studies.

Israel wants Hamas to agree to a proposal by the US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff that entails handing over of half of the living and dead hostages before negotiations begin on a permanent ceasefire deal, which must include Hamas disarming and its leadership leaving Gaza.

"Israel is preparing for a full occupation of the Gaza Strip," Mr Michael told The National. "This is the only way forward if negotiations fail to dismantle Hamas's sovereignty in Gaza."

The Israeli military has this week issued eviction orders to residents of northern Gaza and in the south, including Rafah, ahead of military operations in those areas.

Mr Michael said Israel had provided safe passage to people fleeing their homes and that Rafah had been cleared of civilians. "Rafah is occupied – it is not under siege," he said.

However, Palestinians and NGOs say there is nowhere safe to go to in Gaza, while complaining of soaring prices in fuel caused by an Israeli blockade on the entry of aid. The National spoke to people in Rafah on Wednesday who said they were unable to seek shelter from impending Israeli bombardment because of a lack of transport and security.

NO OTHER LAND

Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal

Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham

Rating: 3.5/5

The bio

Favourite book: Peter Rabbit. I used to read it to my three children and still read it myself. If I am feeling down it brings back good memories.

Best thing about your job: Getting to help people. My mum always told me never to pass up an opportunity to do a good deed.

Best part of life in the UAE: The weather. The constant sunshine is amazing and there is always something to do, you have so many options when it comes to how to spend your day.

Favourite holiday destination: Malaysia. I went there for my honeymoon and ended up volunteering to teach local children for a few hours each day. It is such a special place and I plan to retire there one day.

At a glance

Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.

Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year

Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month

Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30

Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse

Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth

Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances

Teachers' pay - what you need to know

Pay varies significantly depending on the school, its rating and the curriculum. Here's a rough guide as of January 2021:

- top end schools tend to pay Dh16,000-17,000 a month - plus a monthly housing allowance of up to Dh6,000. These tend to be British curriculum schools rated 'outstanding' or 'very good', followed by American schools

- average salary across curriculums and skill levels is about Dh10,000, recruiters say

- it is becoming more common for schools to provide accommodation, sometimes in an apartment block with other teachers, rather than hand teachers a cash housing allowance

- some strong performing schools have cut back on salaries since the pandemic began, sometimes offering Dh16,000 including the housing allowance, which reflects the slump in rental costs, and sheer demand for jobs

- maths and science teachers are most in demand and some schools will pay up to Dh3,000 more than other teachers in recognition of their technical skills

- at the other end of the market, teachers in some Indian schools, where fees are lower and competition among applicants is intense, can be paid as low as Dh3,000 per month

- in Indian schools, it has also become common for teachers to share residential accommodation, living in a block with colleagues

Plastic tipping points

A MINECRAFT MOVIE

Director: Jared Hess

Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa

Rating: 3/5

The rules on fostering in the UAE

A foster couple or family must:

be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE

not be younger than 25 years old

not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude

be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders

have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially

undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being

A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially

Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

Generation Start-up: Awok company profile

Started: 2013

Founder: Ulugbek Yuldashev

Sector: e-commerce

Size: 600 plus

Stage: still in talks with VCs

Principal Investors: self-financed by founder

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The%20specs

%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EEngine%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E2.3-litre%204cyl%20turbo%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPower%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E299hp%20at%205%2C500rpm%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETorque%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E420Nm%20at%202%2C750rpm%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETransmission%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E10-speed%20auto%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFuel%20consumption%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E12.4L%2F100km%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EOn%20sale%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ENow%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPrice%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFrom%20Dh157%2C395%20(XLS)%3B%20Dh199%2C395%20(Limited)%3C%2Fp%3E%0A

Election pledges on migration

CDU: "Now is the time to control the German borders and enforce strict border rejections"

SPD: "Border closures and blanket rejections at internal borders contradict the spirit of a common area of freedom"

Cryopreservation: A timeline

Keyhole surgery under general anaesthetic

Ovarian tissue surgically removed

Tissue processed in a high-tech facility

Tissue re-implanted at a time of the patient’s choosing

Full hormone production regained within 4-6 months

Tuesday's fixtures

Kyrgyzstan v Qatar, 5.45pm

Iran v Uzbekistan, 8pm

N Korea v UAE, 10.15pm

3%20Body%20Problem

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On Women's Day

In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe

Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010

Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille

Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm

Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year

Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”

Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners

TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013