# Netzarim Corridor

The Netzarim Corridor is an area in the Gaza Strip that served as an Israeli zone of military occupation from 2023 to 2025 during the Gaza war. The corridor, which split the Gaza Strip down the middle, was located just south of Gaza City and stretched from the Gaza–Israel border to the Mediterranean Sea. It was named for the site of the former Israeli settlement that it includes.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) considered this corridor to be essential for carrying out raids in northern and central Gaza, as well as securely channeling aid into the region. The corridor was run by IDF divisions that rotated in and out of it, particularly the 99th Division and 252nd Division.
Following a ceasefire with Hamas that came into effect on 19 January 2025, Israel withdrew from parts of the Netzarim Corridor on 27 January. Israel completely withdrew its troops from the corridor on 9 February 2025 but returned on March 19. Large crowds of displaced Gazans have since been able to cross through and return to their homes in the northern Gaza Strip.

## Background

The IDF took possession of the former Netzarim site during Operation Cast Lead and entered with 150 Merkava and other military vehicles on 4 January 2009. The reoccupation of Netzarim effectively separated Gaza City from southern Gaza Strip, weakening Hamas' control of the region. On the early morning of 12 January, troops stationed at Netzarim began their northward push into Gaza City's Sheikh Ijlin neighborhood. When a ceasefire was declared by Israel on 17 January, the IDF gradually evacuated the site.

## History
### Invasion of the Gaza Strip

Israel invaded the Gaza strip on 27 October 2023 as a response to the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel three weeks prior. On 30 October 2023, IDF troops were confirmed to have entered the area of the former Netzarim settlement. By 6 November, the IDF "had cut an informal, winding track" across the Gaza Strip which reached to the coast. On 24 November, it was reported that the IDF would "continue administrative and logistical movements on the Netzarim axis and coastal road in the northern Gaza Strip".
Satellite imagery from 6 March 2024 showed that a 4 miles (6.4 km) long partially paved road, numbered Route 749, had been constructed within the corridor. Approximately 1.2 miles (1.9 km) of the road consists of pavement that existed prior to the Gaza war, with Israel clearing a path through the entire width of the strip. The IDF also repaired portions that were destroyed by armored vehicles and reinforced it with multiple lanes for various types of military vehicles. Satellite imagery from 24 May 2024 showed new pavement had been laid over gravel roads since 18 May 2024 up to the intersection with the Salah al-Din Road.
According to the Institute for the Study of War, in July 2024 Israel increased the width of the corridor from 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) to 4 kilometres (2.5 mi).
On 17 August 2024, two Israeli soldiers of the Jerusalem Brigade's 8119th Battalion were killed in the Netzarim Corridor by a Hamas ambush which included a roadside bomb and militants firing on the convoy.
Iran claimed that it successfully hit the Netzarim Corridor as part of its October 2024 Iranian airstrikes on Israel. The claim has not been confirmed by Israel nor any Western analyst.
Between September and November 2024, Israeli soldiers demolished over 600 buildings around the road to create a buffer zone, in addition to increasing the presence of outposts, communication towers, and defensive fortifications.
On 18 December 2024, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz published the testimonies of commanders and officers of the 252nd Division and the 99th Division about the Netzarim Corridor being a "kill zone" with arbitrary lines where every Palestinian is shot for being a suspected terrorist. One officer claimed that a report of 200 killed Hamas militants was wrong since "of those 200 casualties, only ten were confirmed as known Hamas operatives".

### Ceasefire

As part of a ceasefire agreement with Hamas that came into effect on 19 January 2025, Israel agreed to gradually withdraw from the Netzarim Corridor.
On 25 January, Hamas failed to release a hostage scheduled for transfer to Israel under the ceasefire's prisoner exchange. As a result, Israel suspended its planned opening up of the Netzarim Corridor. However, the release of the hostage was later arranged and Israel opened up the western part of the corridor on the morning of 27 January, with large crowds of displaced Gazans returning to the north. The IDF also began withdrawing from the part that was opened. American and Egyptian security contractors, working under an Egyptian-Qatari committee tasked with implementing the ceasefire, began inspecting vehicles moving through the area. Hamas militants were also later seen stationed at the Netzarim Corridor. On 9 February 2025, Israel fully withdrew its troops from the Netzarim Corridor.

### Resumption of hostilities

On 18 March, the IDF initiated a "focused ground operation" in central Gaza with the intention of creating a "partial buffer zone" and to re-take the Netzarim Corridor bisecting the Gaza Strip, after launching attacks across Gaza, killing over 400 and ending the ceasefire. On March 19, Israeli forces returned and recaptured the central part of corridor.