Gallant: Hamas’s Rafah brigade has been defeated

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant declared on Wednesday during a visit to the Gaza-Egypt border that the IDF has achieved victory over Hamas’s Rafah brigade.

“I came here first and foremost to express my appreciation [to the soldiers]. The Rafah brigade was defeated by the IDF’s Division 162,” Gallant said at the Philadelphi Corridor, the 8.7-mile-long buffer zone captured by Israeli forces in May.

Since taking control of the area, the IDF has located and destroyed 150 terror tunnels, and Gallant instructed the forces to finish the destruction of the remaining tunnels, which Hamas used to smuggle weapons and materials from Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula into the Gaza Strip.

“Out of the 150 tunnels that were destroyed, around 100 tunnels are in fact trenches dug using engineering tools above ground and then covered with a meter or two of dirt,” the minister said.

“I gave an immediate directive to the IDF to destroy the remaining tunnels. It is critical to remember the goals of the war and to achieve them—regarding Hamas, regarding the hostages [held by Hamas], and we also understand why we are looking toward the north,” Gallant continued.

The Rafah brigade and its four battalions—Yabna (south), east Rafah, Tel Sultan (west) and Shaboura (north)—was the terror group’s final functioning brigade, according to Israel military assessments.

Its defeat marks a major milestone in the war that began on Oct. 7 with Hamas’s mass invasion of southern Israel.

The Rafah effort was led by the 162nd Division, under the command of Brig. Gen. Itzik Cohen.

IDF troops have killed more than 17,000 terrorists in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the war, IDF Spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari revealed on Aug. 15.

“IDF forces continue to fight in Gaza—maneuvering in Rafah, Khan Yunis, the central Strip and are attacking everywhere,” Hagari told reporters at a briefing. “So far, we have eliminated more than 17,000 terrorists. The significant combat and the ensuing high accomplishments impede Hamas’s ability to raise its head again and rebuild itself, and we are determined to keep this up,” the military spokesman added.

IDF forces entered Gaza on Oct. 27 after weeks of airstrikes in response to the Oct. 7 attacks, in which terrorists murdered some 1,200 people, wounded thousands more and abducted more than 250 others to Gaza.