In a meeting with commanders in Rafah, IDF Southern Command chief Maj. Gen. Yaron Finkelman declared that the battle in the southernmost city of Gaza would persist until Hamas is defeated. This statement comes in the wake of a deadly explosion that killed eight troops in Rafah.
Addressing the commanders, Maj. Gen. Finkelman acknowledged the tragic incident from the previous day, where eight soldiers lost their lives inside a Namer armored combat engineering vehicle. “We are here after a painful incident that occurred yesterday,” Finkelman said, as per a report from Times of Israel. “We lost fighters and we lost commanders during the attack. These are our best sons.”
“We will continue until we defeat it,” says IDF General
Despite the significant losses, Finkelman emphasized the necessity of continuing the offensive. “Our imperative is to continue moving forward. You are attacking [Hamas’s] Rafah Brigade, and we will continue until we defeat it,” he asserted.
Finkelman concluded that pressing on with the fighting is essential while also ensuring that the incident is thoroughly investigated to learn and improve future operations.
Earlier on Sunday, the IDF reported the death of another soldier in Rafah, Staff Sgt. Tzur Abraham, 22, of the Nahal Brigade’s reconnaissance unit from Modiin. He is scheduled to be buried in his hometown.
In the same incident, a reservist officer serving as a field interrogator with the Intelligence Directorate’s Unit 504 was seriously wounded, and two other soldiers were moderately injured.
312 Israeli soldiers have lost their life
The death of Staff Sgt. Abraham brings the total number of troops killed in the ground offensive against Hamas and operations on the Gaza border to 312. This toll includes a police officer killed in a hostage rescue mission and a civilian Defense Ministry contractor killed in the Strip.
Despite the ongoing conflict, Gaza experienced a day of relative calm on Sunday, following the IDF’s announcement of a daily “pause” in fighting to facilitate aid flows. This pause, intended for humanitarian purposes, is set to occur from 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. daily, along a route from the Kerem Shalom crossing to the Salah al-Din road, extending northwards.
A map released by the IDF showed the designated humanitarian route reaching up to Rafah’s European Hospital, approximately 10 kilometers from Kerem Shalom. The IDF emphasized that this pause does not signify a cessation of hostilities in the southern Gaza Strip.
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