The Israeli army claims it will soon achieve the goals of its Rafah offensive in the southern Gaza Strip.
As much as half of the combat units of the militant Palestinian organization, which ruled Gaza before the war began in October, have been destroyed, the Israeli army said.
Between 60 and 70 percent of the city’s area in the southern Gaza Strip is under “operational control” of the Israeli army, the army said on Monday. It will take only a few weeks before the military operation in the city is completed, the army said.
In early May, the Israeli army launched an operation in Rafah, on the border with Egypt. They declared that their goal was to destroy the last fighting units of Hamas.
The offensive was internationally controversial because at that time more than one million Palestinians took refuge in Rafah.
Most of them fled there fleeing the war from other parts of the Gaza Strip. Almost all of these people have now fled the city to the area to the west, where it is difficult to get food.
According to unconfirmed military reports on Monday, the Israeli army killed around 550 Hamas fighters in 40 days of fighting in Rafah, while losing 22 of its own soldiers.
