Nahal Brigade Commander Colonel Yair Zuckerman spoke to Israel Hayom about the IDF's operations in Rafah and along the Philadelphi Corridor. "Whoever thinks we are stagnating is invited to see what's happening here," he told the newspaper. "Look at Rafah, does this look like stagnating? But we need to understand that this takes time." "Hamas has turned the entire city [of Rafah] into one giant battlefield, booby-trapped and dangerous, and gone down into the underground, from which they operate. The houses are booby-trapped and contain small reverse cameras, by means of which they follow the forces and try to harm them. We found such cameras in the buttons on sofas, on doorframes, in mosques, in clinics, and in schools," he said. Under the Philadelphi Corridor, he noted, "were the highest number of tunnel shafts that we found." "There is an attack underground which connects to the vast underground from Egypt. There is a real underground city here. Rafah is the first place where they made use of tunnels." Zuckerman stressed, "There isn't much enemy above ground here, it's mostly underground. Over 50% of Rafah is in our hands, but that doesn't mean we killed all of the terrorists and destroyed all of the infrastructure. I have freedom of activity, but does that mean that they won't fire antitanks at us? Yesterday they fired three missiles at me and detonated two explosives as I searched tunnel shafts." "When we reached the Philadelphi [Corridor], we found rockets which were ready to be launched towards central Israel," he added. Related articles: 'Pressure Israel to withdraw from Philadelphi Corridor' We didn't plan to attack Israeli soldiers, towns during ceasefire Israeli source: We won't exit Philadelphi Corridor Palestinian Authority to run Rafah Crossing, report says Of Hamas' four battalions in Rafah, at least one has been completely dismantled, while a second is only partially functional, and the last two are still operational. "The estimates are that about half of the terror operatives have escaped to Khan Yunis and are not fighting. The enemy has taken a beating, and it survives. As our control here deepens, we meet meet another enemy. It chose to act in a different fashion than in northern Gaza - it believes that its victory will be if we do not find it underground. We need, strategically, to catch it. As long as we kill more and more terrorists, we will topple Hamas." The goal, however, is not only to kill terrorists, but to destroy the terror tunnels: "If there is a concentrated effort, we will need between two and four months to find all of the tunnels along the Philadelphi Route and examine them. When we say today that we found tunnels along the Philadelphi Route, that does not mean they were examined." "If we are told to build a defense system along the Corridor, we will do so. We have shut the terrorists' oxygen balloon and we need to remain here for some time more. Not forever - but in order to deepen and maximize our achievements." The former settlements of Gush Katif, which was destroyed during the 2005 Disengagement, have now become hubs of terror, complete with an underground rocket manufacturing facility. Adi, a Lieutenant Colonel in the IDF reserves, a Bedouin Israeli, and an IDF tracker who was one of the last to leave Gush Katif, told Israel Hayom , "From a military perspective, we should never have left" Gush Katif. "We needed to come back to operate here ages ago."
