DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that Israel is establishing a new security corridor across the Gaza Strip to pressure Hamas, suggesting it would cut off the southern city of Rafah, which Israel has ordered evacuated, from the rest of the Palestinian territory.

He says the military was “dissecting" Gaza and "increasing the pressure step by step" on Hamas. Read more at straitstimes.com.

The offensive comes as Israel faces criticism after the United Nations said bodies of aid workers were found in a “mass grave."

One month since Israel closed all crossings to Gaza for goods, all UN-supported bakeries have closed, markets are empty of most fresh vegetables and hospitals are rationing painkillers and antibiotics.

Anxious residents rushed to obtain bags of flour as the United Nations warned that Israeli restrictions on aid deliveries were deepening the humanitarian crisis.

The U.N. food agency is closing all of its bakeries in the Gaza Strip, officials said Tuesday, as food supplies dwindle after Israel sealed the territory off from all imports nearly a month ago. Israel,