IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi announced yesterday that the military is nearing victory over Hamas’s Rafah Brigade in the southern Gaza Strip. During a visit to the city, Halevi praised the troops’ “very significant achievements” in the fighting, citing the high number of terrorists killed and infrastructure destroyed, including tunnels. Halevi highlighted the importance of the IDF’s control over the Philadelphi Route on the Gaza-Egypt border, stating that it has closed Hamas’s “oxygen pipeline for future smuggling.” He declared that the military is “clearly approaching the point where we can say we dismantled the Rafah Brigade. It is defeated not in the sense that there are no more terrorists in it, but in the sense that it can no longer function as a fighting framework.” The IDF Chief of Staff revealed that “many” of the Rafah Brigade’s operatives have been killed and encouraged the troops to continue their mission, saying “you will take care to kill as many terrorists as possible and destroy as much infrastructure as possible until the end of the mission here.” This statement indicates a significant milestone in the ongoing conflict, as the IDF continues to target Hamas’s military capabilities. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)