Free Republic

Lest the world forget, a war is still raging in Gaza. Among the many obstacles to even a modest cease-fire, there is the Philadelphi corridor. Less than nine miles long and roughly as wide as a football field, it occupies a crucial border location — including the Rafah crossing — between Egypt and Gaza. Egypt patrolled its side of the border after the 1979 peace agreement, then the Palestinian Authority took over control when Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005. But the PA was itself driven out by Hamas in 2007. Since then, the Rafah crossing has been a central...

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) declared victory Thursday in the battle of Rafah, having destroyed Hamas’s four battalions there over the course of four months. It was a battle that Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party nominee for U.S. president, told Israel not to fight, warning of the consequences for civilians there, and even threatening to withhold U.S. weapons. “I have studied the maps,” Harris said, declaring that it was impossible to attack Rafah without hurting civilians. srael, believing it would lose the war without taking Rafah, entered anyway.

Sharing important post by Daniel Berke, (from Manchester, he’s part of UKLFI) sent today 0900 in Gaza/Israel: Shared with his permission. ==== I've been in Gaza with Natasha Hausdorff, Richard Kemp and our group of 5 Eyes senior military veterans. Other than Douglas Murray and Richard Kemp we were the first allowed in The photos need to approved by the IDF. However: We travelled with the Deputy Commander imof the 162nd Southern Command with an armoured infantry unit along the full length of the Philadelphi Corridor, along the Egyptian border to the Sea. The claim that Israel does not allow...

CNN — The bodies of six hostages held by Hamas have been recovered in an underground tunnel in Gaza, Israel’s military said Sunday. The captives, including an Israeli American, were among the more than 200 people taken by the militants into Gaza following their deadly cross-border rampage on October 7. Five of them were taken from an Israeli music festival where hundreds were killed and dozens more were kidnapped by Hamas fighters. The sixth was captured from a nearby farming community, according to the Hostages Families Forum, which has coordinated efforts to highlight the plight of the captives and their...

When the Jewish State has to go it alone. The New York Times insists that if Israel rejects the Bidenites’ advice to pull out of Gaza, it does so at its peril: “NYT admits US officials were wrong about the IDF in October, and wrong about Rafah, but thinks they are right now,” Elder of Ziyon, August 15, 2024:So these officials were completely wrong in October. They were also wrong about Israel’s taking Rafah, which they now admit is exactly what destroyed Hamas’ supply lines from Egypt – and cost far fewer casualties thna they had confidently predicted.By ignoring warnings...

In recent days, soldiers from the Givati Brigade operated in the Shabura area in Rafah under the command of the 162nd Division, where they eliminated approximately 100 terrorists, the military stated on Tuesday. While operating, 100 terrorists were eliminated, and numerous weapons and terror infrastructure sites were destroyed. Additionally, while searching the area, soldiers located an armed terrorist cell and, through a precise strike, eliminated the terrorists, the IDF said.

The Egyptian Foreign Minister, Badr Abdel-Aty, addressed a press conference with his Lebanese counterpart on Tuesday, regarding the tensions in the northern sector. According to Abdel-Aty, the only way to stop the escalation in the region is to reach an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, stop "Israel's unjust aggression and ensure access to humanitarian aid for the local residents." At a press conference at the end of a meeting with his Lebanese counterpart, Abdel-Aty emphasized the need to continue intensive contacts to curb the security escalation and prevent a regional war. He noted that efforts to reach a ceasefire...

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced Sunday that soldiers had uncovered a massive smuggling tunnel underneath the border between Gaza and Egypt in the area of Rafah — where the U.S. had cautioned Israel not to go. _____________ In a statement, the IDF and the Israel Security Agency (ISA, or Shin Bet, or Shabak) said: Recently, IDF troops have been working to locate and destroy underground tunnel routes in the Philadelphi area, and so far, the troops have located and destroyed dozens of routes. At the beginning of last week, in one of the operations to locate underground tunnel routes...

The IDF strike was the first strike on Yemen's soil in response to ongoing Houthi attacks on Israel and the Red Sea, including a drone attack on Tel Aviv that killed one. Israeli officials on Saturday evening responded to the confirmed IDF strike on the port of Hodeidah in western Yemen, which struck Houthi military targets and energy infrastructures. The strike was conducted by IDF fighter jets and struck several targets in Hodeidah, including Houthi strategic points and energy infrastructure. In response to the strike, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that Israel struck the Houthis in Yemen to send a...

Dozens of Israel supporters protested outside “traitor” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s office in Manhattan on Friday, calling on him to resign for “backstabbing” Israel and allegedly staying silent as antisemitism rages across college campuses. The demonstration came days after the New York senator told reporters he has “faith” in President Biden’s decision to withhold weapons for Israel’s invasion of Rafah, a move the protesters strongly condemned. “Schumer, the doomer! It’s time to resign!” yelled the crowd of about 40 protesters outside his Midtown office.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on June 17 that it has dismantled about half of Hamas’ forces in Rafah. The IDF 162nd Division advanced into Rafah on May 7 and the IDF said that it now controls approximately 60 to 70 percent of the governorate, including the Egypt-Gaza Strip border. The IDF assesses that it has almost completely “dismantled” two of four battalions in Hamas’ Rafah Brigade and that IDF units have “somewhat degraded” the other two battalions. An Israeli media correspondent estimated that Israel will take “several more weeks” to completely “dismantle” Hamas’ Rafah Brigade. Israeli forces have...

United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese criticized Israel for the operation in which Noa Argamani (25), Almog Meir Jan (21), Andrey Kozlov (27), and Shlomi Ziv (40), four of the hostages who were kidnapped from the Nova music festival on October 7, were rescued. "Relieved that four hostages have been released," Albanese wrote on X, using the word 'released' instead of the more accurate 'rescued.' However, she claimed, "It should not have come at the expense of at least 200 Palestinians, including children, killed and over 400 injured by Israel...

U.S., Egyptian and Israeli officials failed to make progress in a meeting last Sunday about reopening the Rafah crossing after the Israeli side refused to allow any role for the Palestinian Authority in operating the strategic site, according to four U.S. and Israeli officials. Why it matters: Reopening the crossing on the border of Egypt and Gaza, preventing Hamas from smuggling weapons into the Strip from Egypt and maintaining a tenuous peace between Israel and Egypt are top priorities for the Biden administration. U.S. officials say the reopening of the Rafah crossing could be a first step in a wider...

Half of all the Hamas terrorists in Gaza have been killed during the war, according to Reuters, citing U.S. officials Thursday, and most of the remaining ones are holed up in the town of Rafah, where Israel has been advancing slowly. Reuters reported: Hamas has seen about half its forces wiped out in eight months of war and is relying on hit-and-run insurgent tactics to frustrate Israel’s attempts to take control of Gaza, U.S. and Israeli officials told Reuters. The enclave’s ruling group has been reduced to between 9,000 and 12,000 fighters, according to three senior U.S. officials familiar with...

In the lead up to the Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) operation to destroy Hamas and secure the release of over 100 hostages – including 8 Americas – believed to be in and around Rafah, leaders around the world from Joe Biden to the collective leftist leaders of the European Union to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi panicked and ordered Israel to forestall its necessary means to end the war.Why did world leaders clamor for Israel to do nothing?What are they hiding?It turns out they are hiding a lot.Over one million Gazans were said to be sheltering in humanitarian safe areas...

Four hostages including a British Israeli citizen have been murdered in Hamas captivity in the Gaza Strip, according to the Israeli military. Nadav Popplewell, 51, who was taken from Kibbutz Nirim, was confirmed dead by Israeli officials on Monday — along with Israelis Chaim Peri, 79, Yoram Metsger, 80, and Amiram Cooper, 84, who were taken from Kibbutz Nir Oz, the Times of Israel reports. Hamas previously claimed that all four were killed in Israeli airstrikes. The circumestances of their deaths was not immediately clear.

The military said on Wednesday that it now had full operational control of the Philadelphi Corridor, which runs along the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. This effectively clamps down on any possible weapons flow to Hamas from the outside. Troops located 20 tunnels crossing into Egypt near the Philadelphi Corridor and 82 tunnel shafts. This information was passed on to Egypt. Egypt’s Al Qahera News denied the reports. “It doesn’t mean that we have boots on the ground across all of the corridors, but it means we can control and we have the ability to cut off the...

Gaza's 9 mile border with Egypt includes a buffer zone known in Israel as the Philadelphi corridor. Today Israel claimed it had gained tactical control over the corridor and located more than a dozen tunnels used to smuggle items into Gaza.Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military spokesman, said the zone was “Hamas’s oxygen tube” and had been used by the Palestinian armed group for “smuggling munitions into Gazan territory on a regular basis.” He said that Hamas had also built tunnels near the Egyptian border, calculating that Israel would not dare strike so close to Egyptian territory.Israeli officials have...

Saudi Arabia accused Israel on Wednesday of committing “continuous genocidal massacres” against Palestinians, casting the Biden administration’s efforts to broker a “normalization” deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia in doubt. In a statement, the Saudi Foreign Ministry — which has taken a tougher line toward Israel than Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) — accused Israel of deliberately targeting the tents of Palestinians in Gaza. #Statement | Saudi Arabia condemns and denounces in the strongest terms the continuous genocidal massacres committed by the Israeli occupation forces against the Palestinian people without deterrence by continuing to target the tents of defenseless...

The IDF in a preliminary investigation: Hamas ammunition caused the deaths of civilians in Rafah. The army began to investigate the circumstances of the death of about 45 Palestinians in northwest Rafah. Hamas blamed the IDF, but the initial investigation states that the IDF did not attack there at all. Shlomi Diaz. 20 Iyar 5784. 28.05.24 | 18:43 .. In the recording published by the IDF, one of the speakers is heard saying that "They say that they (Hamas operatives who were eliminated) sat in a meeting, and that there is (a facility) and in addition, there was ammunition that...