Defense Minister Yoav Gallant declared on Sunday that Hamas is on the brink of collapse, unable to recover from the pressure of Israeli operations and cut off from its weapons supply. During a visit to southern Gaza’s Rafah, Gallant asserted that the Palestinian terror group is “a broken force running out of time.” The Israel Defense Forces have returned to areas where they previously operated to confront a re-emergence of Hamas forces, nine months into the war. According to Israeli officials, the army has defeated all but four Hamas battalions in the Gaza Strip, with two in Rafah and two in central Gaza. Gallant emphasized the significance of the Rafah offensive, stating, “The fighting here in Rafah signifies a very important thing. We are actually shutting off Hamas’s air – Rafah crossing, the tunnels… The result is that they have no way of arming themselves, they have no way to equip themselves, they have no way to bring in reinforcements, they have no way to take care of their casualties, and we see this very well.” He continued, “Their fighting spirit is broken, and time is not on their side; it is actually working against them… We are destroying the tunnels, we are destroying the weapons, and reaching places it never dreamed we would reach, at great depths below ground.” Gallant vowed that the IDF will “continue and push until we reach a situation where we choke [Hamas’s] windpipe, and do not allow it to rebuild its strength. This is the goal of this operation.” In Rafah, the army reported that several terror operatives had been killed, tunnels demolished, and a Hamas site with nine rocket launchers was discovered and destroyed. The IDF also uncovered a tunnel adjacent to a United Nations school, with shafts leading to the underground passages later demolished by the elite Yahalom combat engineering unit. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)