CNN
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Thick clouds of grime and sand fill the air as our convoy of Humvees arrives in Rafah, the primary time worldwide reporters have been allowed in because the Israeli army launched its floor assault on this metropolis two months in the past.

Because the mud settles, the dimensions of destruction is startling. However additionally it is all-too acquainted.

This a part of Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost metropolis which turned the final refuge for greater than 1,000,000 Palestinians earlier within the battle, is now unrecognizable.

Israel has repeatedly described its floor operation in Rafah as “restricted.” However on this neighborhood in southern Rafah, the destruction appears to be like nearly an identical to what I’ve seen in northern Gaza, in central Gaza and in Khan Younis by the restricted prism of journeys into Gaza with the Israeli army.

Some houses are flattened and different buildings bombed out.

“That is the place the primary destruction is as a result of it was booby-trapped and since the tunnels have been booby trapped,” Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the IDF’s prime spokesman, tells me once I press him on how this represents a “restricted” operation.

“And while you see destruction, it’s as a result of both the homes have been booby trapped, both once we demolished a tunnel the homes fell aside, or that Hamas fired from these homes and risked our forces and we had no different methodology however to be sure that our forces have been protected,” Hagari added.

Different elements of Rafah aren’t practically as devastated, he says. However CNN can’t independently confirm his claims: Israel has barred international journalists from getting into Gaza independently and our solely entry is through embeds with the Israeli army. And this devastated part of Rafah is the place they’ve introduced us.

The Israeli army has introduced us right here to not see the destruction, however to speak about why they launched an offensive right here within the first place, what they say they’ve uncovered and what they’ve completed.

Earlier than arriving into Rafah, we drive alongside Gaza-Egypt border: by what’s referred to as the Philadelphi hall. The realm was seized by the Israeli army, which says it has uncovered dozens of tunnel shafts in addition to rocket launchers used to fireside rockets into Israel. Hagari confirmed us one tunnel shaft, which he stated stretched about 90 ft (28 meters) underground.

The Israeli army says Hamas has used the Philadelphi hall to smuggle weapons in from Egypt after which deeper into the remainder of the Gaza Strip. Hagari says a number of the tunnels stretch towards Egypt, however he can’t but definitively say whether or not these tunnels have been useful and have been used to smuggle weapons into Gaza. Egypt has denied that there are any tunnels stretching into its territory from Gaza.

“We’re researching these tunnels rigorously and ensuring which of them have been useful and which aren’t useful anymore as a result of possibly they have been – from the Egyptian aspect – stopped,” Hagari says.

He received’t say precisely how lengthy Israeli forces might want to occupy this hall, however says it may very well be weeks or months.

Hagari additionally says Israeli forces killed greater than 900 Hamas fighters in Rafah and are near defeating Hamas’s Rafah brigade. However what number of militants have melted away and are more likely to regroup as soon as Israeli forces go away this space is much less clear – and absent a long-term technique or a substitute for Hamas governance in Gaza, Hamas has already begun to just do that in different areas the place Israeli forces had beforehand withdrawn.

As for the Rafah floor operation, Hagari can’t say whether or not it will likely be the final in Gaza.

“I received’t say that as a result of what you will notice is once we’ll have intelligence that possibly there are hostages in one of many factors in Gaza, we’ll function and do a raid. If we’ll get intelligence in a kind of areas that Hamas terrorists are making ready a terror assault in opposition to Israelis or our forces, we’ll do a raid and assault,” Hagari says. “That is what you’ll see.”