While public and international attention turns to other fronts, fighters from the 188th Brigade continue systematic operations in the southern Strip, dismantling Hamas infrastructure. Though the terror organization’s Rafah Brigade has ceased to exist as an organized military framework, commanders on the ground make clear the threat is far from gone: dozens of tunnels and underground complexes have been uncovered recently. Forces are operating continuously in Khan Younis and along the southern smuggling corridor to secure communities near the Gaza border.
Here, at the edge of the Philadelphi Corridor, at the southernmost point of the Gaza Strip, Strip residents already appear far from the border. Behind the headlines about ceasefires and the establishment of a peace council, as Israel and the world focus on other sectors, the IDF continues to operate on the ground. In Rafah and Khan Younis, the work of reshaping the security landscape continues.
2+Battalion 53 of the 188th Brigade has been here for many long months. The pastoral view of the coastal strip on the horizon is not deceiving. Hamas has indeed lost much of its power, but it is still trying to reorganize.
In recent months, dozens of additional underground infrastructures have been uncovered in the Rafah area, alongside smuggling routes and military complexes that Hamas built over years. The IDF says the operation is still far from over, and that dismantling the infrastructure is being carried out systematically, meter by meter.
Khan Younis also remains a significant center of activity. After extensive operations in the city, the IDF continues to conduct targeted raids against terrorist cells, locate combat equipment, and prevent Hamas attempts to rebuild its military strength.
2+And from this area you can understand how much the Strip has changed since the start of the war. Entire neighborhoods in Rafah that were once central Hamas strongholds have become devastated battle zones. The IDF estimates that Hamas’s Rafah Brigade has effectively ceased to exist as an organized military framework, but warns that the threat has not disappeared.
Alongside the fighting, one of the most sensitive missions also takes place here—overseeing the entry of humanitarian aid into the Strip. Trucks continue to enter, under careful inspection, in an attempt to prevent the smuggling of combat equipment alongside aid to the civilian population.
2+And amid all this, the fighters and commanders have been here for over two years now, far from home and families. And here, at the edge of Philadelphi, with the Gaza border communities behind them and the ruins of Rafah before them, the message from commanders on the ground remains clear: to maintain this security zone that will ensure October 7th never happens again.