Netanyahu says the final phase of the war against Hamas is imminent

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu He believes that the main phase of the war against the Islamist Hamas in the Gaza Strip will soon be completed, he said on Monday.

“We are nearing the end of the phase of dismantling the Hamas terror army,” he said in Jerusalem at a reception for cadets of the National Defense Academy. “We will continue to fight against its remnants.”

Netanyahu had previously visited the Gaza Division, which is currently stationed in the city of Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip. He said he had seen “very significant progress” there.

Israel has been bombing Gaza for months and launched a ground offensive after Hamas’ mass attack on southern Israel on October 7. Since then, at least 37,765 Palestinians have been killed and another 86,429 injured in Gaza, according to the coastal health authority.

Netanyahu said the offensive in Rafah on the border with Egypt was aimed at destroying the last large Hamas fighting units. However, the Islamist militia remained militarily active in the form of smaller units.

The Israeli Prime Minister’s words indicate that the army’s major ground offensive in the Gaza Strip could soon come to an end.

Netanyahu and senior military officials have repeatedly pointed out that Israeli troops would remain at strategic locations in the sealed-off coastal region even after the phase of heavy fighting. This includes, in particular, the so-called Philadelphia Corridor, a 14-kilometer-long, narrow strip that runs along the border with Egypt on the Gaza side near Rafah.

Earlier on Monday, around 20 rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory, prompting Israeli artillery fire, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said.

Some of the rockets were intercepted, others hit open ground, it was said. Air raid sirens sounded near the border, urging residents to seek shelter. The Israeli armed forces said they had fired artillery at the launch sites.

The attacks were the worst in a long time, Israeli media reported.

In the first months of the war, thousands of rockets were fired at Israeli targets as far away as Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Since then, the frequency of attacks has decreased.