Israel declares victory over Hamas’ Rafah division, turns focus to north

JERUSALEM:

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Wednesday that Hamas’s Rafah Division in Gaza has been “defeated” and signaled that the military is turning its attention to fighting Hezbollah along the Israel-Lebanon border.

Gallant made the remarks during a tour of the Philadelphia Corridor, an area that runs along the Gaza-Egypt border that Israel seeks to maintain control of even after a possible ceasefire. The Israeli Defense Ministry released a photo of Gallant, wearing a bulletproof vest and surrounded by commanders, in a Palestinian building that Israeli troops had seized and turned into a headquarters.

He said the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Division 162 had “defeated” Hamas’ Rafa Division. During the assault on Gaza’s southernmost city, the IDF destroyed 150 tunnels, according to figures disclosed by Gallant. He added that “a small number” of tunnels remained intact and “had given immediate orders” to destroy them.

In May, the IDF launched a major ground assault on Rafah, a city in southern Gaza that had been designated a “safe zone” and sheltered more than a million displaced Palestinians.

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Israeli security officials recently claimed that most potential military targets in Gaza have been exhausted. Gallant indicated that the military was now changing its focus.

“The most important thing, in my view, in terms of strategy, is to achieve all the objectives of the war regarding Hamas and the hostages, and now look north,” he said, referring to northern Israel, where the ongoing conflict with Hezbollah has intensified. from October 7, 2023.

Cross-border tensions have risen in recent weeks after Israel killed a senior Hezbollah official in Beirut in late July.