The Israel Defense Forces decided to deploy two reserve brigades for missions in the Gaza Strip to move ahead with plans for an offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
The 679th “Yiftah” Armored Brigade and the 2nd “Carmeli” Infantry Brigade are set to take responsibility for central Gaza that have remained under Israeli military control since troops largely pulled back from other areas of the Strip earlier this month.
According to the IDF, the move will free up Nahal Brigade troops currently holding the central corridor to join the rest of the 162nd Division in preparing for future operations, including planned offensives in Rafah and central Gaza.
The IDF said the two reserve brigades “prepared in recent weeks for their mission in the Gaza Strip.”
The mobilized brigades were to be placed under the 99th Division.
Notably, during the first few months of the IDF’s ground offensive in Gaza, the division had been tasked with the Netzarim corridor in the central Gaza Strip, an east-west route.
One of the brigades will again be deployed to the east-west belt dividing the Strip in two, while the second will secure a pier being built by the United States on central Gaza’s coast aimed at boosting deliveries of humanitarian aid, according to Army Radio.
The corridor, built around a road south of Gaza City, enables the IDF to carry out raids in northern and central Gaza while allowing Israel to control access to the north for Palestinians seeking to return after fleeing south.
I am an experienced writer, analyst, and author. My exposure in English journalism spans more than 28 years. In the past, I have been working with daily The Muslim (Lahore Bureau), daily Business Recorder (Lahore/Islamabad Bureaus), Daily Times, Islamabad, daily The Nation (Lahore and Karachi). With daily The Nation, I have served as Resident Editor, Karachi. Since 2009, I have been working as a Freelance Writer/Editor for American organizations.
