Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced on Thursday night that Hamas forces in Khan Yunis have been officially defeated.
He said that after additional gains by the IDF in Khan Yunis, 10,000 Hamas fighters have been killed and 10,000 wounded, up from around 9,000 killed and around 8,000 wounded around a week and a half ago.
If true, along with the close to 2,500 Hamas terrorists who have been arrested, the percentage of Hamas forces out of commission would now be up to between 56-75%, up from 48-64% around 10 days ago, presuming Hamas’ forces pre-war were between 30,000-40,000.
Gallant’s statement that the IDF has completed taking apart Hamas’s remaining battalions in Khan Yunis, including in the western part of the terror group’s southern Gaza capital, would also seem to be a week or a couple of weeks ahead of IDF statements.
Earlier this week, the IDF said it was on the verge of taking apart Hamas’s final Khan Yunis battalion in the western section but appeared to suggest that it could still be some weeks before the process was complete.
It was unclear if some additional dramatic progress had been made in the last few days or if Gallant was projecting a bit forward by a week or so.
The IDF itself still has not announced full operational control in Khan Yunis as it did in northern Gaza in late December and early January.
Gallant vows to rout Hamas in Gaza’s Rafah
The defense minister also vowed to rout Hamas in Rafah, where to date, the military has avoided using ground troops so as not to alienate Egypt.
However, an increasing number of top officials have suggested to the Jerusalem Post that Hamas’s top leaders and many hostages may have moved from Khan Yunis to Rafah.
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