The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has found loaded rocket launchers during its operation in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, now in its second week.
Rocket fire from Gaza into Israel, which was nearly constant in the days following the October 7 terror attack, has largely subsided. However, in recent weeks, Hamas terrorists have fired rockets at the Keren Shalom crossing, where humanitarian aid enters Gaza near Rafah, and at the city of Sderot, near northern Gaza.
The IDF identifies loaded rocket launchers in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. May 16, 2024 (IDF)
In a statement, the IDF said:
The soldiers of the 401st Brigade combat team, under the 162nd Division, continue precise operations in specific areas of eastern Rafah.
During the brigade-level operation, soldiers of Unit 414, operating under the 401st Brigade combat team, flew drones that located rocket launchers loaded and ready-to-fire long-range rockets into Israeli territory. These launchers were used by the terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip to launch rockets toward Israel in recent months. The rocket launchers were destroyed by the IDF.
In another targeted raid, the soldiers located significant rocket launch infrastructure in the Rafah area and rockets ready to be launched. The launch infrastructure was used to fire rockets towards Israel in recent months and has now been destroyed.
Rockets are sometimes launched from mobile pads or tripods. Frequently, they are fired from shafts dug into the ground or even embedded inside buildings. They are aimed toward Israeli civilian centers; each launch is a war crime.
The fact that the IDF is discovering and destroying rocket launchers provides further justification for the ongoing Rafah operation, to which the Biden administration and much of the international community has objected. Israel maintains that the last four intact Hamas battalions are located in the town, which is along the Egyptian border.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
