Israel focuses on southern Gaza: after Khan Younis, it targets Rafah
The Israeli Armed Forces are “dismantling” Hamas infrastructure in Khan Younis, more than two months after entering the main city in the southern Gaza Strip, and believe the head of the Palestinian faction in Gaza is hiding there, a high-ranking military officer said this Thursday.
Progress in Khan Younis has led Israel to describe Rafah, further south and along Gaza's border with Egypt, as the next target for a ground sweep by troops and tanks. In fact, today, Israel has carried out several air raids on Rafah.
Most of Gaza's 2.3 million residents are now sheltering in the area, after being displaced from other places in four months of fighting, fearing they will be next in the line of fire.
The situation in Rafah, after Khan Younis, the largest city in the south, is also being watched by Cairo, which has ruled out allowing any refugees to leave through the fence into the Sinai Peninsula.
A senior Israeli military officer has stated that operations in Khan Younis to destroy Hamas and recover any hostages who may be there will continue as long as necessary, whether “two hours, two days, two weeks or two months, or even more”.
Israeli troops have killed 2,000 fighters, wounded 4,000 and captured “hundreds,” in the words of the officer, who requested anonymity. “The Khan Yunis Brigade was the most powerful Hamas had. “We are dismantling it, layer by layer,” he added. He has also detailed how attacks by Palestinian fighters are increasingly random, suggesting a loss of command and control.
Khan Yunis is the birthplace of Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahia Sinwar, mastermind of the October 7 wave of murders and kidnappings in southern Israel that sparked the war. “Without a doubt he is in Khan Yunis, along with some of the remaining Hamas leaders,” the Israeli military man maintained.
The Israeli army has published images of alleged Hamas tunnels discovered in Khan Younis, with living spaces and cells, in which they are assumed to have held hostages.
The Israeli army estimates that 228 soldiers were killed and 1,314 wounded in ground operations in the Strip, which began on October 20. (Reuters)
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