JERUSALEM

Israeli security officials estimated that the army's military operation in Rafah will end in two weeks, media reports said Friday.

Public broadcaster KAN quoted senior security officials who estimated that the operation in the southern Gaza Strip will not take more than two weeks to be concluded.

KAN cited the unnamed officials as saying if no agreement on a cease-fire with the Palestinians is reached before ending the operation in Rafah, the political level must decide the next steps in Gaza.

They added that the Israeli war on Gaza is close to the end of its second phase, and there are necessitates to take new steps, otherwise the military operation will turn from success to failure.

On May 6, the Israeli army invaded Rafah, a tiny city at the southern tip of Gaza despite international warnings. It also captured the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing, a vital route to humanitarian aid into Gaza, worsening the already difficult humanitarian conditions in the territory.

The security officials noted that the army will keep control after ending the military operation in Gaza over the Netzarim Corridor area, established by the Israeli army in central Gaza to separate northern Gaza from the southern parts, and over the Rafah crossing and the Philadelphi Corridor area -- a demilitarized buffer zone running along the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt.

Early Friday, Israeli Channel 12 reported that the army recommended ending its military offensive in Rafah and heading toward an “operation in the north” in reference to Lebanon.

Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire.

Nearly 37,300 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and more than 85,000 others injured, according to local health authorities.

More than eight months into the Israeli onslaught, vast tracts of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar