Middle East latest: Israel is establishing a new military corridor across Gaza

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.

The announcement came after Netanyahu’s defense minister said Israel would seize large areas of Gaza and add them to its so-called security zones.

A wave of Israeli airstrikes overnight into Wednesday killed more than 40 Palestinians, nearly half of them women and children, according to Palestinian health officials.

One strike killed at least 17 people in a United Nations building, previously a clinic, that had been converted into a shelter for more than 700 displaced people. Israel said it struck Hamas militants in a "command and control center."

Israel has vowed to escalate the nearly 18-month war with Hamas until the militant group returns dozens of remaining hostages, disarms and leaves the territory. Israel ended a ceasefire in March and has cut off all food, fuel and humanitarian aid to Gaza — a tactic that rights groups say is a war crime.