Betito, who commands Givati, was giving Israeli reporters a tour of Yabna — known in the Israel Defense Forces as NPK — on Tuesday, highlighting the brigade’s successes and challenges in this now deserted neighborhood of Rafah.
“They identified a terrorist, approaching the force with an RPG, a sniper team identified him, hit him, but I’m not sure if we killed him, they are verifying it now,” the colonel said after speaking to a subordinate over the radio, just as the journalists left a heavily damaged apartment building where Givati had set up shop.
The infantry brigade entered Rafah along with other troops from the 162nd Division in early May. As armored forces captured the Rafah Crossing with Egypt and the so-called Philadelphi Route — the Egypt-Gaza border area — Betito’s brigade pushed for Gaza’s key north-south road, Salah a-Din.
In the following weeks, Givati pushed deeper into Rafah, operating in Yabna and other neighborhoods where Hamas had built up its infrastructure. Most recently, the brigade has been readying itself for an offensive in Shaboura, a neighborhood in central Rafah adjacent to Yabna. READ MORE
The Hamas fighter with an RPG was a relatively rare sight for the troops fighting in Rafah. Unlike in other areas of Gaza, the terror group largely abandoned its posts, with very few operatives attempting to engage Israeli forces in close quarters.
