Israel claims to have killed 900 Hamas fighters in two months in Rafah

Last Updated on July 4, 2024 9:56 am

Israel has claimed to have killed nearly 900 Hamas fighters in the past two months after launching a military operation in the southern border town of Rafah in the besieged Gaza Strip. Israel’s army chief General Herzi Halevi said this information.

Halevi visited a temporary post of Israeli troops in southern Gaza on Tuesday. He told reporters there that since the beginning of last May, about 900 militants (Hamas fighters) have been killed in Rafah. The dead included at least one battalion commander, several company commanders and scores of ordinary soldiers.

Noting that the operation in Rafah will continue for a few more weeks, Israel’s army chief said that the first phase of the operation has ended. At this stage the military infrastructure of Hamas is now being destroyed. Some of these infrastructures are underground. So it will take some time to complete the campaign in Rafah.

Rafah, the southern city of Gaza, is among the most important sites in the valley. The town is home to the Rafah border crossing, once known as Gaza’s ‘lifeline’. At the other end of this crossing is the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt. Until the start of the Israeli military operation, the Rafah Crossing was used to provide food and relief supplies to the Palestinians in Gaza.

The Israeli army has been attacking the besieged Gaza since October 7 last year. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians had sought refuge in the border town to escape Israeli attacks before the operation in Rafah. But Rafah, the last “safe” haven for Palestinians, was not spared from the hands of the Israeli army. From the beginning of last May, Israel began to invade there on a large scale.