Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel’s military is “switching gears” in Gaza, dividing and seizing more parts of the strip, a move experts say could mean Israel establishing deeper, more long-term control over the territory.

Israel is “carving up” the Gaza Strip in a bid to pressure Hamas into freeing hostages and will establish a new corridor, parallel to the Egyptian border, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said with the army escalating ground operations in the south.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the pressure on Gaza would increase until the remaining hostages were returned to Israel. “The more they do not give (back the hostages), the more the pressure will increase until they do,” vowed the Israeli Prime Minster in a video statement released on Wednesday.