Israeli flags line the central road inside the Netzarim Corridor, which heads east-west across the Gaza strip.  The road ends at a large military outpost on the Mediterranean coast, south of Gaza’s Sheikh Ijlin district. The base is now fully operational, with temporary detention facilities, interrogation rooms and permanent quarters for a brigade command and combat units. The base is being fortified with trenches as construction crews and engineering officers work to complete the fortifications.
The most critical part of this base lies between it and the coast: an advanced coastal checkpoint through which, the military hopes, a large portion of the Palestinian population will soon pass southward as the IDF increases pressure on the Jabaliya area of Northern Gaza.
Currently, the Netzarim corridor is held by two reserve brigades. Further south, at the bottom of the strip, another brigade holds the Philadelphi Corridor between Rafah and the Sinai.  
The IDF has expanded the Netzarim corridor over recent months, with the corridor now covering approximately 56 square kilometers (22 square miles), forming an Israeli military enclave at the heart of northern Gaza.
The corridor stretches along an eight-kilometer (five-mile) axis from the Be’eri region to the sea.  First secured a year ago by the IDF’s 36th Division, the area was seen as a potential leverage point in hostage negotiations. 
With negotiations stalled, the IDF is now expanding it’s territorial control in Gaza, with plans to potentially secure the Philadelphi corridor in similar fashion.  
Originally, when the war broke out, the border checkpoint leading from Israel to Gaza in the Netzarim corridor was called “Crossing 96.” Once the IDF realized that the Netzarim Corridor would remain under Israeli control, it established “Checkpoint 3” (Point 3), with a small team to monitor the movement of forces in and out of the corridor. Today, it has developed into “Terminal 3,” a large, organized military base at the edge of Be’eri Forest, currently in advanced stages of construction.
While at one point in the war, private individuals posing as soldiers managed to gain unauthorized access to Gaza through checkpoint, increased staffing and security infrastructure has been brought in to prevent any such infiltrations again. 
The checkpoint is frequented by IDF open-sided Humvees, along with armored Defender jeeps (known as “David” vehicles used primarily in security operations in the West Bank).  The military vehicles are joined by a steady flow of construction trucks, cranes and drills in what looks like a major highway.
Along the border with Israel, the IDF operates what it calls “The Cement Plant,” after the site was used to facilitated the large-scale engineering work establishing the corridor and rebuilding the border barrier damaged at the war’s outset.
The yard of the post features a barbeque used frequented by soldiers, and is turning into what looks like a permanent base:  A new water line from Israel has been installed, and Israeli cell phone service continues working inside, as the IDF installed a cell tower inside the corridor, enabling soldiers to keep in touch with their families, without climbing onto rooftops to try and catch a signal. 
From the post, one can see the northern end of the Netzarim corridor, including the hundreds of buildings the IDF destroyed to expand the corridor.  
Driving inside the corridor, not a single tank can be seen, as the IDF’s armored units are dispersed across a security and maintenance zone, which has now expanded to seven or eight kilometers wide. The road itself will soon be repaved with asphalt as the IDF prepares for a second winter in Gaza, and rainy season that comes with it. 
Posts inside the corridor consist of two types: repurposed Gazan buildings, and newly installed military structures, often modular containers.  
IDF sources say: “Everything here is modular and removable, most of these structures can be loaded onto trucks and engineering vehicles and quickly dismantled.” 
Between security posts inside the corridor, the IDF is conducting extensive drilling operations to find any tunnels running beneath the route. Led by the 252nd Division’s engineering battalion and involving civilian contractors, this project is designed to prevent potential explosive traps or exit points for attackers from below. Recently, a tunnel over 20 meters deep was found under the corridor.  It is slated to be destroyed.  
Earlier in the war, many Gazans approached IDF posts in the corridor, but were either fired upon or pushed back. Hamas even sent drugged Gazans toward IDF positions to gauge the soldiers’ responses. These situations  have declined, and the large Hamas attack on the corridor during the Iranian missile attack on October 1st, has not been repeated.
While some mortar fire on the corridor continues, it is becoming increasingly infrequent, with some weeks often passing between fire at some posts.  Loudspeakers connected to detection sensors are installed to warn troops of incoming mortar fire. 
The patterns of combat in the Netzarim Corridor have solidified over the recent months: Hamas continuously attempts to harass IDF battalion raids that chip away at Palestinian territory at the corridor’s periphery.  The most recent operations mostly focused on the Nuseirat area.
{Matzav.com}