The Israeli army says it will soon achieve its objectives in the Rafah offensive.
Half of the combat units of the militant Palestinian organization, which controlled Gaza before the war that broke out in October, have been destroyed, the army said.
About 60 to 70 percent of the city’s territory in the southern Gaza Strip is under “operational control” of Israeli forces, the army said Monday.
It would only take a few weeks for the military operation in the city to be completed, the army said.
The Israeli army launched the operation in Rafah, which is located on the border with Egypt, in early May. The stated goal was to dismantle the last Hamas fighting units.
The offensive was highly controversial internationally because there were more than 1 million Palestinians in Rafah at the time. Most of them had fled there from other parts of the Gaza Strip to escape the war. Nearly all of these people have now fled the city to an area in the west, where supplies are difficult to come by.
Israeli forces killed about 550 Hamas fighters in 40 days of fighting in Rafah on Monday, according to unverified army reports. Twenty-two of their own soldiers in the fighting.
During the operation they found an extensive tunnel system and large quantities of weapons and explosives.
There are said to be at least 25 underground tunnels running under the border with Egypt. This information also cannot be independently verified at this time.
By taking control of the so-called Philadelphi Corridor, a narrow strip of land running along the Gaza side of the border with Egypt, Israel has vastly increased its control over what goes in and out of Gaza.
Although Egypt denies this, it was an open secret in the Gaza Strip that goods ranging from everyday necessities to luxury goods were being smuggled through tunnels, upon which Hamas then levied customs duties.
