JERUSALEM, Israel
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav
Gallant said on Wednesday that Hamas' Rafah Division in Gaza has been
"defeated" and signaled that the military was shifting its focus to
the fighting against Hezbollah along the Israel-Lebanon border.Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant (C) is seen during a tour of the Philadelphi Corridor, an area that runs along the Gaza-Egypt border, on Aug. 21, 2024. (Courtesy)
Gallant made the remarks
during a tour of the Philadelphi Corridor, an area that runs along the
Gaza-Egypt border and which Israel seeks to maintain control even after a
potential ceasefire. The Israeli Defense Ministry released a photo of Gallant,
clad in a bulletproof vest and surrounded by commanders, in a Palestinian
building that Israeli troops had seized and converted into a headquarters.
He said that Division 162 of
the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had "defeated" Hamas' Rafah Division.
During the assault on Gaza's southernmost city, the IDF destroyed 150 tunnels,
according to figures revealed by Gallant. He added that "a small
number" of tunnels remained intact and he had "given an immediate
order" to destroy them.
In May, the IDF launched a
large ground offensive in Rafah, a city in southern Gaza that had been
designated as a "safe zone" and was sheltering over one million
displaced Palestinians.
Israeli security officials
have recently claimed that most potential military targets in Gaza have been
exhausted. Gallant indicated that the military was now shifting its focus.
"The most important
thing, in my view, in terms of strategy, is to achieve all the war's goals
regarding Hamas and the hostages, and now to look northward," he said,
referring to northern Israel, where ongoing conflict with Hezbollah has intensified
since Oct. 7, 2023.
The cross-border tensions have
heightened in recent weeks following the Israeli assassination of a senior
Hezbollah official in Beirut at the end of July.
No comments:
Post a Comment