Israel claims to have killed 550 militants and dismantled half of the Hamas brigades in Rafah

June 17 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The Israeli Armed Forces reported this Monday that they have killed 550 Palestinian militiamen in the recent military operation launched in Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip and have dismantled two of the four combat brigades that the Islamic Resistance Movement had. (Hamas) in the area.

The Israeli Army thus considers that of the four battalions that the Rafá Brigade had, two have been “almost completely” dismantled, the Yabna (south) and East battalions. The other two, Shabura (north) and Tel Sultan (west) would have been depleted as a result of military operations.

The military statement explains that the 162nd Division of the Army has been fighting in Rafá for more than 40 days, first taking the outskirts of the city and then the Rafá crossing that connects the Gaza Strip with Egypt in a first phase, which began in May. In the second phase they took the neighborhood known as Brazil and in the third they took the entire border with Egypt, the so-called Philadelphia corridor, and the Tel Sultan neighborhood, in the northwest of Rafá.

The figure of 550 militiamen killed is based on the count that has been confirmed, so the militiamen killed in bombings against buildings and tunnels should be added, he explains. Furthermore, the Israeli Army warns that some “terrorists” have been able to flee Rafah before the launch of the offensive.

Hundreds of rockets have been found in the Philadelphia corridor, some of them long-range with the capacity to reach central Israel. In that border area, 200 tunnel entrances leading to underground routes have also been found.

Thus there would be at least 25 “long” tunnels that reach the border with Egypt and some cross to the Sinai region. They were used by Hamas to smuggle weapons.

The Philadelphia corridor is “under complete operational control” of Israeli forces, as are the Brazil neighborhood and the NPK neighborhood of Rafá, along with the Shabura and Yabna refugee camps. The latter is considered an important Hamas stronghold and dozens of militants have died there inside tunnels, always according to the Israeli military version.

In these operations the 162nd Division has lost 22 soldiers, eight of them last Saturday in an attack against a Namer-type armored personnel carrier.