Israel declares victory over Hamas' Rafah division, signaling shift in focus to northern front

JERUSALEM - Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Wednesday that Hamas' Rafah Division in Gaza has been "defeated" and signaled that the military was shifting its focus to the fighting against Hezbollah along the Israel-Lebanon border.

Gallant made the remarks during a tour of the Philadelphi Corridor, an area that runs along the Gaza-Egypt border and which Israel seeks to maintain control even after a potential ceasefire. The Israeli Defense Ministry released a photo of Gallant, clad in a bulletproof vest and surrounded by commanders, in a Palestinian building that Israeli troops had seized and converted into a headquarters.

He said that Division 162 of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had "defeated" Hamas' Rafah Division. During the assault on Gaza's southernmost city, the IDF destroyed 150 tunnels, according to figures revealed by Gallant. He added that "a small number" of tunnels remained intact and he had "given an immediate order" to destroy them.

In May, the IDF launched a large ground offensive in Rafah, a city in southern Gaza that had been designated as a "safe zone" and was sheltering over one million displaced Palestinians.

Israeli security officials have recently claimed that most potential military targets in Gaza have been exhausted. Gallant indicated that the military was now shifting its focus.

"The most important thing, in my view, in terms of strategy, is to achieve all the war's goals regarding Hamas and the hostages, and now to look northward," he said, referring to northern Israel, where ongoing conflict with Hezbollah has intensified since Oct 7, 2023.

The cross-border tensions have heightened in recent weeks following the Israeli assassination of a senior Hezbollah official in Beirut at the end of July.