The IDF is getting close to the point where it will have eliminated Hamas’s military wing, after which it would transition to going after its remnants, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday.
He spoke as the intense phase of fighting in Rafah was nearing its completion. “We are progressing to the end of the elimination phase of Hamas’s terrorist army” after which the IDF will “continue to hit its remnants,” he told trainees at Israel’s National Security College. He continued doubling the importance of achieving all the Gaza war aims. These include returning the hostages, ensuring that Hamas can’t govern Gaza or control it militarily, and preventing threats to Israel from the enclave, he said. More significantly, Netanyahu said, he was committed to returning residents of southern and northern border communities who had not been able to safely live in their homes since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7.