Situation update: According to the IDF they currently control roughly 40% of the Gaza Strip’s territory.
- After maintaining a degree of ambiguity over the military campaign the IDF has revealed more details of its latest military campaign in Gaza over the last month.
- The fighting is taking place in the north, south and central Gaza, focused on remaining hubs of Hamas’s power base. Regular situation assessment meetings are held with the IDF officials responsible for the hostages in order to prevent attacks in parts of Gaza where the hostages are being held.
- Since the military operation was re-launched just over a month ago, the IDF have carried out around 1,300 attacks and claim that more than 400 terrorists have been killed, including military commanders and senior Hamas officials.
- In the south, the IDF is determined to defeat the Rafah brigade (again). As such the ‘Morag Corridor’ – six km wide, ten km long and cutting off Rafah from the rest of the Gaza Strip – is designed to isolate Rafah and cut access to Khan Yunis. The IDF has identified and destroyed two major tunnels in this area, but it is unclear if more exist.
- The IDF believes that its control of the Morag Corridor leaves the Rafah Brigade surrounded, though operatives have continued to exploit the tunnels in the Rafah sector to carry out attacks against IDF forces. According to military estimates, approximately 150 Hamas operatives remain in three neighbourhoods in Rafah.
- Over the last few days the Israeli Air Force has struck over 200 military targets throughout the Gaza Strip. According to the IDF this has included, “terrorist cells, launch and sniper posts, weapons storage facilities, and structures used by terrorists for terrorist activity.”
- In southern Gaza IDF troops, “dismantled terrorist infrastructure sites and located a weapons cache containing grenades, ammunition, and additional military equipment.”
- The IDF also announced the targeting of another terrorist that participated in the October 7th massacre.
Buffer zone: Inside the Gaza periphery the IDF has now established a ‘buffer zone’ and built 15 new military outposts inside Gaza, from north to south Gaza.
- These posts, consisting of high mounds of earth surrounded by barbed wire and built adjacent to Israel, are designed to prevent another October 7th style attack on the communities on the Israeli side of the border.
- During the course of the month, Hamas has largely avoided direct confrontations with IDF forces.
- For the most part Hamas has decided to withdraw most of its estimated remaining 20,000 fighters – many of whom are considered untrained and recruited in the last year – and have them assimilated among the civilians in the designated safe zone.
- As a result, Hamas fighters have reverted to guerilla tactics to attack IDF soldiers, by firing anti-tank rockets and sniper rifles, and by detonating improvised explosive devices (IED’s) and firing rockets.
- IDF troops say they rarely see Hamas fighters, who are often able to disappear, presumably down an undiscovered tunnel shaft.
Bedouin Officer killed: Ghaleb Alnasasra a 35 year old Bedoiun tracker from Rahat was killed by an IED in the buffer zone in northern Gaza.
- The incident began when fighters suddenly emerged from a tunnel and fired a rocket-propelled grenade at an unarmoured military vehicle. Three female combat soldiers were seriously wounded and were taken by helicopter to hospitals in Israel.
- Twenty-eight minutes later, the terrorists detonated an IED, targeting trackers who had come to assist with the wounded soldiers’ evacuation.
- The terrorist squad successfully escaped to the nearby town of Beit Hanoun.
Looking ahead / hostage talks: After Hamas rejected the most recent Israeli proposal, a new round of talks to discuss a hostage deal is expected to begin in Cairo in the next couple of days.
- Reports suggest that Qatar and Egypt have a new proposal, calling for a truce for between five and seven years, the release of all 59 hostages in exchange for the release of Palestinian terrorists, a declared end to the war and a full Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
- Israel’s security cabinet is scheduled to meet this evening.
- If the talks don’t progress, the IDF is making preparations for an even more comprehensive ground manoeuvre. This could include dividing the Strip in half and for the IDF to take over and hold more territory to increase further pressure on Hamas.