By Seth J. Frantzman
Today’s Issue: | 401st Brigade Raids Hamas Training Sites in Rafah Area, Finding Weapons and Tunnel Shafts | Gazans Seeking Medical Treatment Abroad Will be Permitted to Leave Through Kerem Shalom Crossing | COGAT: 275 Aid Trucks Entered Gaza on Sunday, Only 159 Collected | In West Bank Operations, IDF Arrests Wanted Persons, Confiscates Materials for Producing Explosives | Latest FDD Analysis
401st Brigade Raids Hamas Training Sites in Rafah Area, Finding Weapons and Tunnel Shafts: On Sunday, troops from the IDF’s 162nd Division were continuing operations in the Rafah area. During “precise, intelligence-based operations,” the division’s 401st Armored Brigade destroyed the Abu Said compound, which Hamas’s Tel Sultan Battalion used for training. Troops also found tunnel shafts and weapons storage facilities as well as the office of battalion commander Mahmoud Hamdan and the office of Hamas commander Yasser Natat, who was in charge of Rafah Brigade rocket fire against Israel and soldiers in Gaza. The 401st Brigade also carried out another operation in a Hamas training complex, finding tunnel shafts used for attacking IDF troops as well as a large quantity of weapons and intelligence documents.
Gazans Seeking Medical Treatment Abroad Will be Permitted to Leave Through Kerem Shalom Crossing: According to Israeli news website Walla, Palestinian media are reporting that today, for the first time since the war began, Palestinians will exit the Gaza Strip through the Kerem Shalom crossing. According to sources in the IDF’s Southern Command, this is intended to enable Palestinians, in coordination with Egypt, to travel abroad for medical treatment. Those leaving will undergo security checks to prevent terrorists and wanted persons from escaping. People with humanitarian needs who hold special permits will also be allowed to leave. Walla cites sources in the Israeli defense establishment as saying that they have no objection to the Palestinians’ leaving, but they must undergo security checks.
COGAT: 275 Aid Trucks Entered Gaza on Sunday, Only 159 Collected: On Monday, COGAT, the Israeli entity coordinating humanitarian aid for Gaza, published its latest update, noting that 275 aid trucks entered Gaza on Sunday, 229 through the Kerem Shalom crossing, six via the Erez crossing, and 40 through the JLOTS maritime route. As of yesterday, 159 of these trucks had been collected, 112 from Kerem Shalom and 47 from Erez. COGAT added that the contents of 1,100 aid trucks are on the Gazan side of the Kerem Shalom crossing awaiting pickup and that 6,376 aid pallets are awaiting collection from the JLOTS offloading area. In addition, four fuel tankers and three gas tankers intended for operating essential infrastructure entered Gaza yesterday. COGAT also noted that the IDF is pausing operations in the Al-Ktiba neighborhood of Khan Younis between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. today to enable humanitarian aid to be moved.
In West Bank Operations, IDF Arrests Wanted Persons, Confiscates Materials for Producing Explosives: The IDF reported on Monday that in an operation in the West Bank village of Silwad, three wanted persons were arrested, many were interrogated, and materials for producing explosives were confiscated. In the village of Naama, five wanted persons were arrested, and many were interrogated. During operations in Nablus, one suspect was arrested, while in Hebron, a man suspected of incitement to terrorism was arrested and weapons were seized. In Husan, Beit Fajar, and Bala’a, four more wanted men were arrested. Some 4,150 wanted persons have been arrested in the West Bank since the start of the war, about 1,750 of them Hamas members. The IDF also announced on Monday that last night’s explosion in the Tulkarem area was from an explosive device operated remotely by terrorists on the Palestinian side of the security fence in an attempt to draw IDF forces into the area.
There is nothing to worry about – no famine, no lack of food, water, power or anything else. It is all sitting there in the heatwave waiting to be picked up.