In my debut column, “Drone Strike Rocks Eilat, Israel – 22 Injured,” RedState member Louise1 asked in the comments, “Will you write articles that tell us the current status of the fighting in Gaza?” In response to your request, here is the latest update on IDF operations to capture and maintain permanent control of Gaza City.

Note that I started writing this column before the joint press conference between Trump and Netanyahu, where Trump’s peace deal was announced. However, until Hamas complies with the deal and releases all hostages, the IDF’s operations in Gaza will continue. The entire column ended up being nearly 3,500 words, so it was divided into two parts. Part 1 will cover the Gaza War from its beginning through August 2025. Part 2 will concentrate on the current operation from August 2025 to the present.

Background Information: First 15 months (October 7, 2023 – January 20, 2025)

On October 7, 2023, Hamas invaded Israel, resulting in the deaths and rapes of 1,200 civilians, including pregnant women and babies. Over the following 15 months, President Joe Biden and his administration actively interfered with the IDF’s efforts to swiftly defeat Hamas. Initially, Biden demanded that, as a condition for providing military aid to Israel, the IDF allow food and water into Gaza. This aid was repeatedly stolen by Hamas and then resold to Gaza residents at inflated prices.

As I mentioned in a previous column, reports from the United Nations document that Hamas has stolen nearly 90 percent of all the aid entered into Gaza since the war commenced. In 2024 alone, during Biden’s presidency, Hamas earned 500 million dollars by stealing aid and reselling it at inflated prices to the residents of Gaza.

Besides forcing the IDF to feed the terrorist enemy they were attempting to defeat, Biden also refused to allow the shipment of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel, expressing concern about “civilian” casualties. The “legacy” media claims that Biden didn’t “refuse” the shipment but merely “paused” it. However, Biden never resumed the shipment, and the 2,000-pound bombs did not reach the IDF until Donald Trump was inaugurated as president.

When militaries aim to capture urban areas, they typically use sustained artillery fire and airstrikes to weaken enemy positions before advancing ground forces. This tactic, known as “preparatory fires,” relies heavily on the 2,000-pound bomb for its effectiveness. The warhead of a 2,000-pound bomb can collapse multistory buildings and clear large paths through enemy positions ahead of ground force movements. Biden’s refusal to supply 2,000-pound bombs to the IDF significantly hindered Israel’s ability to capture urban areas quickly without high casualty rates. The IDF adapted by using 500-pound bombs in larger quantities, but they never fully overcame the absence of 2,000-pound munitions in their mission to eliminate Hamas.

During the Biden administration, the IDF operated in nearly all parts of the Gaza Strip with the exception of some central areas, like the city of Deir al-Balah. The IDF’s main strategy during these 15 months was to operate temporarily in an area, destroying all of Hamas’s main operating bases and attempting to locate and destroy as much of the tunnel network as possible. However, once it achieved those goals, the IDF would then pull out of that area, leaving most of the other buildings intact. The idea was to avoid a prolonged stay in an urban area and unnecessarily expose its troops to Hamas ambushes that would be more frequent if there were a permanent presence.

One exception to this rule was the IDF’s security zone which it established and held along both the northern and eastern borders of Gaza with Israel. The security zone ranged from 800 meters to 1,000 meters (between 0.5 and 0.6 miles) while in some places it extended as deep as 1.5 kilometers (0.9 miles). Within this security zone, Israel razed all structures and essentially created a staging area for the IDF where it could advance to various parts of Gaza depending on the mission.

A second exception is the Philadelphi Corridor, which is the part of Gaza that borders Egypt. In 1979, as part of the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt, a path approximately 100 meters (328 feet) wide was cleared of structures along the entirety of the 8.7-mile border of Gaza and Egypt to build a patrol road. When Hamas took over the strip after Israel’s unilateral pullout in 2005, Hamas built tunnels under the Philadelphi Corridor into Egypt to smuggle in weapons. The IDF captured the Philadelphi Corridor in August 2024, and it vowed never to relinquish control again.

Background Information: Beginning of 2nd Trump Administration

Several days prior to being sworn into office, Trump was focused on forcing Hamas to release the remaining hostages, including three American citizens who were still alive: Keith Siegel, Sagui Dekel-Chen, and Edan Alexander. On January 19, 2025, the day before Trump took the oath of office, a ceasefire deal went into effect. Hamas released 33 hostages over a six-week period, which ended on February 23 with the last batch of the 33 hostages. Siegel and Dekel-Chen were released during this six-week period. Meanwhile, Hamas used the ceasefire to rebuild tunnels and infrastructure.

Over the next three weeks, Hamas deliberately stalled in agreeing to release any more hostages, and the IDF renewed limited military action in mid-March. Per Trump’s request, the IDF operated only in areas it had already captured. Hamas was still holding Edan Alexander, an American citizen, and so the IDF agreed to delay a full-scale major operation.

Prior to the implementation of the January 19 ceasefire, the IDF had seized control of the city of Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip. On April 2, 2025, Netanyahu announced the IDF would establish the Morag Corridor, permanently cutting off the city of Rafah from the rest of the Gaza Strip. The Morag Corridor is named after the Jewish Morag settlement. The Gaza settlement of Morag existed from 1972 through 2005, when Israel unilaterally withdrew the IDF and dismantled all of its settlements in Gaza.

Over an 11-day period from April 2 to April 12, the IDF cut a permanent path across Gaza from the east to the Mediterranean. The Morag Corridor’s distance from the Philadelphi Route ranges from 7.5 miles at its eastern terminus to just a half-mile at the Mediterranean. To see a satellite image of the Morag Corridor being built, click here. And to see the exact path the Morag Corridor takes, click here. When the corridor was completed, the IDF evacuated the civilian population that lived in the newly established security zone between the Philadelphi Route and the Morag Corridor. The IDF also began the process of removing all the infrastructure in this area to create a wide-open security zone.

On May 12, 2025, Trump was finally able to force Hamas to release Edan Alexander, who was the last American hostage still being held. After Alexander’s release, it became obvious that Hamas was not going to release any more hostages. Therefore, Trump told Netanyahu to do what was needed to eradicate Hamas.

Background Information: Operation Gideon’s Chariots

On May 16, 2025, four days after Alexander was released, the IDF launched the full-scale offensive codenamed Operation Gideon’s Chariots. The primary goal of Gideon’s Chariots was to capture, control, and hold 75 percent of Gaza’s territory. The IDF operation involved advancing on three axes: north, east and south. From the north, the IDF advanced southward from the Israel-Gaza border and captured Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahiya and Jabalia. From the east, the IDF advanced westward toward Gaza’s main north-south axis, Salah al-Din Road. The IDF captured and held nearly all the territory between Salah al-Din Road and the eastern Gaza-Israel border.

Meanwhile, from the south, the IDF advanced northward from the Morag Corridor and captured parts of the densely populated city of Khan Yunis. The IDF’s Tzanhanim demolished 2,137 multi-story buildings in two eastern Khan Yunis neighborhoods over the course of the operation. The Tzanhanim (35th Paratroopers Brigade) are Israel’s elite infantry troops on par with the Tier 2 US Rangers. The Tzanhanim wear maroon boots to make them stand out from all the other units that wear black boots.

On August 4, 2025, Operation Gideon’s Chariots came to an end with the IDF in control of 75 percent of Gaza’s territory. Since October 7, 2023, every IDF operation has had at least three goals: free the hostages, eradicate Hamas, and achieve additional mission-specific objectives. Anyone capable of logical thought knows that no single mission will accomplish both freeing all the hostages and eradicating Hamas completely. Those goals will be achieved incrementally as they have been since October 7, 2023. Therefore, an IDF mission’s success or failure must be judged by its additional mission-specific objectives. Since the IDF was able to capture and hold 75 percent of Gaza’s territory, Operation Gideon’s Chariots was a success.

Despite the mission’s success, many Israeli media outlets reported that Gideon’s Chariots did not achieve its goals. Since Hamas is in power and still holds hostages, the mission failed according to the leftist Israeli media. Using this leftist logic, the Normandy Landings would be considered a failure because after Allied forces captured the beachhead, Hitler was still in power and Jews were still held in concentration camps.