“Israel is moving forward with its operation against Hamas in Rafah,” government spokesman David Mencer said at a press conference. – The four battalions that remain in Rafah cannot be protected from Israel. They will be attacked.”
D. Mencer added that “two reserve brigades” were mobilized for “defensive and tactical missions in Gaza” against the Palestinian Islamist movement.
“At least 18 or 19 of the 24 Hamas battalions” have been destroyed since Israel’s ground invasion of the Gaza Strip began on October 27, he said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly said Israel will take further action, threatening to attack Rafah, the last major population center in the Gaza Strip not yet entered by Israeli ground forces.
The prime minister said the destruction of the remaining four Hamas battalions in Rafah was vital to his government’s war objective of destroying the Islamist group in the Gaza Strip.
Most of the 2.4 million Gazans have found refuge in Rafah, many of them sheltering in makeshift camps.
Countries, including Israel’s main ally the United States, have warned Israel against sending troops to Rafah, fearing heavy civilian casualties and a wider humanitarian catastrophe.
Hamas wants a permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, which is currently unacceptable to Netanyahu, who has vowed to destroy all Hamas battalions.
D. Mencer said that during the war in the Gaza Strip so far “at least 26 thousand people have been killed, detained or injured on the battlefield.” terrorists”.
Israel is launching a large-scale military offensive against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip after the Islamist group carried out an unprecedented attack on southern Israeli communities on October 7.
The October 7 attack by Hamas killed 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to Israel.
In the attack, Hamas militants took about 250 hostages, 129 of whom Israel says are still in the Gaza Strip, including 34 dead.
In response, Israel launched a massive military offensive that killed at least 34,262 people, mostly women and children, in the Gaza Strip, according to the Hamas-run territory’s Health Ministry.
