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(JNS) Israel Defense Forces troops have killed more than 17,000 terrorists in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the war against Hamas on Oct. 7, IDF Spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari revealed on Thursday night.
“IDF forces continue to fight in Gaza—maneuvering in Rafah, Khan Yunis, the central Strip and are attacking everywhere,” Hagari told reporters at a briefing. “So far, we have eliminated more than 17,000 terrorists.
“The significant combat and the ensuing high accomplishments impede Hamas’s ability to raise its head again and rebuild itself, and we are determined to keep this up,” the military spokesman added.
IDF forces entered Gaza on Oct. 27 after weeks of airstrikes in response to the Oct. 7 attacks, in which terrorists murdered some 1,200 people, wounded thousands more and abducted more than 250 others to Gaza.
On June 23, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the intense combat in Gaza was winding down and that the IDF would deploy more troops to the Lebanese border amid attacks by Iran-backed Hezbollah.
Last month, the IDF announced that its forces had killed half of Hamas’s leadership in Gaza and killed or arrested around 14,000 of its fighters.
That number was identical to a figure cited by Jerusalem two months prior, when Netanyahu told a U.S. podcast, “We’re facing 35,000 Hamas terrorists. We’ve killed already about 14,000, wounded many others.”
Avi Hyman, a government spokesperson, said on May 13 that IDF forces had killed more than 14,000 terrorists and that some 16,000 civilians had been killed in Gaza since Oct. 7 as a result of the ensuing war.
Hyman said the Israeli army was setting the gold standard for urban warfare with “the lowest civilian-to-combatant casualty ratio in history.”
On Thursday, the IDF announced that soldiers killed 20 terrorists and destroyed a structure concealing a tunnel entrance during raids in the former Hamas stronghold of Rafah in southernmost Gaza.
Over the course of 24 hours, the Israeli Air Force attacked more than 30 Hamas terrorist infrastructure sites, including structures rigged with explosives, underground infrastructure and weapons storage facilities.
The military also revealed on Thursday that troops over the past month demolished no fewer than 50 terrorist tunnels under the Philadelphi Corridor separating the Gaza Strip from Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.
Israeli forces conquered the Philadelphi Corridor in May and continue to operate in the border area to prevent Hamas from smuggling weapons and other materials into Gaza via a vast network of tunnels.
