Rafah nearly cleared of Hamas terrorists as Israeli military pushes forward

The Israeli military announced on Saturday that it has defeated most of the remaining terrorist operatives in Rafah, an important former Hamas hub located in southern Gaza on the Egyptian border.

“Janina is the last area where fighting against terrorists in the Rafah Brigade is taking place,” the military said, referring to a specific neighborhood in the area. Israeli soldiers from the Golani Brigade have in recent days been deployed to Rafah with the goal of neutralizing the remaining terrorist infrastructure in the town.

The IDF (Israel Defense Forces) revealed that it had struck some 60 terrorist targets in the past 24 hours across the Gaza Strip. More than 20 terrorist operatives were killed, and additional dozens were injured in the IDF operations. However, the Israeli military’s Gaza offensive has not been cost-free. The past week’s intense fighting in Rafah’s Janina area have resulted in the death of four IDF soldiers. In addition, several Israeli soldiers have been wounded in the fighting against Hamas terrorists.

Meanwhile, the Hamas-controlled Gazan health ministry claimed that five local civilians belonging to the same family were killed in an alleged Israeli strike in the Gaza City area.

“Three children, their mother and her husband were sleeping inside a tent and were bombed by an [Israeli] occupation aircraft,” family member Omar Abu al-Kass claimed in an interview with AFP. He further claimed that the strikes took place “without warning and without [them] having done anything wrong.”

The claim could not be verified by an independent source. Hamas, which deliberately uses Gazan civilians as human shields does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its official casualty figures. The Israeli military’s policy is to minimize civilian casualties, and it usually warns civilians ahead of strikes in specific areas.

Israel launched its current military offensive against Hamas in March after the terrorist organization refused to release more Israeli hostages.

The town of Rafah has played a crucial role in the ongoing war with Hamas. Rafah’s strategic location on the Egyptian border made it an important hub for Hamas’ efforts to smuggle weapons into the Gaza Strip.

Much of the international community including the former U.S. Biden administration opposed Israeli military operations in Rafah due to the large concentration of Gazan civilians in the area. Biden officials were reportedly concerned that such operations would lead to a large number of civilian casualties. However, the Israeli Netanyahu government emphasized that an Israeli military victory against Hamas required neutralizing Hamas forces in Rafah.

The Biden administration later revised its position in Rafah after the Israeli military demonstrated its capability to fight Hamas operatives without harming the civilians in the area.

"It’s fair to say that the Israelis have updated their plans. They’ve incorporated many of the concerns that we have expressed," a Biden official stated.

In May 2024, a Harvard University poll indicated that 72% of Americans supported the Jewish state’s efforts to neutralize Hamas terrorists in Rafah. The same month, Israeli forces eventually seized the strategically important Philadelphi Corridor, which separates Rafah from the Egyptian Peninsula. The Israeli capture of the area greatly undermined Hamas’ efforts to continue its smuggling and rearming efforts. Israel has so far rejected demands from Hamas and Egypt to evacuate Rafah and the Philadelphi Corridor.

In October 2024, Israeli forces eliminated Hamas leader and Oct. 7, 2023, massacre mastermind Yahya Sinwar in Rafah.