The Israeli army said on Wednesday (4) that it had killed more than 200 Palestinian terrorists over the past week in the Tal al Sultan neighborhood, west of the southern city of Rafah in Gaza, where it has been carrying out an intense offensive since last May.
“Over the past week, troops from the 401st Brigade have carried out precision operations based on intelligence information in Tal al Sultan,” the Israeli Armed Forces detailed in a statement, in which they claim to have eliminated more than 200 terrorists and located dozens of weapons.
After one of the clashes between soldiers and terrorists in a building in the neighborhood, troops carried out a raid and found weapons in one of the basements, the text added.
In addition, soldiers found ten rocket launchers camouflaged in the sand, prepared to launch long-range munitions into Israeli territory.
Since May, the Israeli army has been carrying out an intense offensive against Rafah, which began with the aim of eradicating four Hamas battalions. On August 21, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced the defeat of the four battalions operating in the Palestinian city, although he made no reference to the end of the offensive.
While the initial goal of the offensive was to defeat the Hamas brigades in Rafah, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has now focused its interests on another element of the area: the Philadelphia corridor, which separates Gaza from Egypt.
Control of this 14-kilometer corridor, which connects the Kerem Shalom crossing to the Mediterranean Sea, is one of the main obstacles to reaching an agreement with Hamas, and given the “strategic” importance that Netanyahu gives it, the prime minister will speak later this Wednesday at a press conference with international journalists.
The Israeli prime minister claims that the corridor is a gateway for weapons to enter the Strip. According to the army, 80% of the underground tunnels along this border have already been destroyed.
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