WATCH: IDF continues limited Rafah op. in shadow of hostage negotiations

The IDF continued its limited Rafah operation on Wednesday while holding back from a larger operation pending the ongoing hostage negotiations with Hamas.

To date, the IDF has secured the Philadelphi Corridor to start to cut off Hamas’s last major avenue for smuggling weapons into Gaza and the nearby eastern Rafah area

However, multiple defense sources made it clear that the IDF was intentionally holding off on a broader Rafah operation to give some more time to negotiations with Hamas over the Israeli hostages it has been holding since October 7.

Defense sources added that Israel’s patience was not indefinite and that a decision would likely be made either to broaden the invasion of Rafah in the coming days or to give Hamas more time to cut a deal if it seems there is real progress.

Currently, top Israeli officials view Hamas’s latest negotiating position on the hostages issue as still insufficient to arrive at a deal.

The IDF on Monday had already started evacuating around 100,000 of over one million Palestinian civilians currently in Rafah on its way toward a limited initial invasion of the last remaining Hamas stronghold.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant clarified at the time that the invasion was being rolled out incrementally and in multiple stages so that if Hamas, mid-invasion, finally agreed to a reasonable hostage exchange deal, it could be halted.

The IDF announced on Monday morning that civilians in parts of eastern Rafah were told to evacuate to new expanded humanitarian zones, which include al-Mawasi on the coast, parts of Khan Yunis slightly north but still in southern Gaza, and as far north as central Gaza.

No civilians will be allowed to evacuate to northern Gaza.

Hamas is said to have between 4,000-8,000 fighters, including four-plus battalions in Rafah, the remainder of an around 35,000-strong force of terrorists, which it had when the war started on October 7.

Rafah operation intensifies, but still limited

On Wednesday, IDF troops led by the 162nd Division - and based on intelligence from the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) and IDF intelligence - continued precise operations against Hamas and its terror infrastructure in eastern Rafah.

Troops of the 401st Brigade killed around 30 terrorists and uncovered terror infrastructure and underground shafts in the area, which the forces subsequently began to destroy.

Earlier Wednesday, forces from the Givati Brigade also identified and killed a terrorist armed with an RPG.

The IDF also said that in addition to the activity of the ground troops, Israel Air Force jets had carried out strikes on more than 100 terror targets in the Strip, among which were observation posts, launch posts, military infrastructures, and structures.

Meanwhile, early Wednesday, the IDF and COGAT announced in a joint statement that the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza had reopened.

Rockets fired at Kerem Shalom crossing

Late Wednesday, Hamas fired rockets at the crossing.

The IDF said that the rockets had not entered Israel but did not specifically address if the attacks had any impact on the crossing. They said that the rockets fell in the Gaza Strip.

Following rocket sirens that were sounded in Shlomit near the Gaza border, one IDF soldier was lightly injured but received medical treatment at the scene after at the scene after launches were identified crossing from the area of Rafah into the area of Kerem Shalom.

Multiple defense sources had not responded to press time regarding whether Kerem Shalom was still open or had reclosed due to the attack.

It might have been quietly temporarily closed and reopened again, but without advising the media on the issue as US President Joe Biden has made keeping that crossing open a major public priority.

Biden’s pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu led the prime minister to order the crossing reopened even before the IDF had carried out a full review of what led to four soldiers being killed and around ten injured from another Hamas rocket attack earlier this week.

Netanyahu overruled defense officials who wanted to reopen, but only after a full review of the security breakdown.

The military added on Wednesday morning that trucks from Egypt containing humanitarian aid, including food, water, and medicine, were arriving at the crossing. Following examination by Israeli Defense Ministry officials at the crossing, the assistance would be transported to the Palestinian side of the crossing.  

The IDF statement on Wednesday also clarified that while the Kerem Shalom crossing had been closed, the Erez crossing had remained open to aid deliveries, which had been subsequently transferred to the Strip.

There was also an incident in which Palestinian workers, presumably aid workers, were on their way to the Kerem Shalom crossing and were shot, with multiple workers wounded.

The IDF said it had provided medical aid to the injured Palestinians and that it was probing the incident, but at press time, IDF spokespeople were still unclear about whether the IDF, Hamas, or some other party had fired on the aid workers.

Since a March 31 incident in which the IDF mistakenly killed seven aid workers, the military has been trying extra hard to avoid recurrent incidents.

Separately, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi on Wednesday notified three IDF brigadier generals, Ofer Winter, Yaniv al-Aluf, and Yoram Kanfu, that they were being released from their service.

The decision to pass over Winter for promotion was particularly controversial being that he has political support from former prime minister Naftali Bennett, former defense minister and Yisrael Beytenu party leader Avigdor Liberman, and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.

That closeness to politicians and a variety of incidents where Winter was perceived as showing courage but also a disregard for decorum and respect for the chain of command are likely what led to both Halevi and former IDF chief Aviv Kohavi to freeze Winter’s status and eventually release him.