Cnn, by the way, has been given rare access to war-torn Ra'afa. That's a city in Southern Gaza that has been ravaged by months of relentless Israeli military operations. And in this new report, CNN's Jeremy Dimon embeds with Israeli military to bring you a closer look from the front lines of the war. It's important to note, CNN reported from Gaza under Israeli Defense Forces escort at all times. Cnn retained editorial control over the final report and did not submit any footage to the IDF for review.

Thick clouds of sand shroud the road to Rafa. But as the dust settles, the destruction is unmistakable. Flattened homes and bombed-out buildings, Gaza's last refuge devastated by the Israeli military assault on this city.

We are now entering the third month of Israeli military operations in Rafa, and you can see all around me the destruction that these last two plus of military operations have wrought inside of the city of Ra'fa. All around destruction, very similar to the kind that I've seen in central Gaza, as well as in the northern part of the Strip.

This is the first time CNN has gotten access to this devastated city. Israel and Egypt have barred journalists from Gaza, except under tightly-controlled military embeds like this.

We're working in this area very, very precise, very, very accurate. Unfortunately, Unfortunately, the destruction is one to blame, Hamas.

The Israeli military says it has killed over 900 Hamas fighters here and believes it is close to defeating the group's Ra'afa brigade. The fighting is clearly not over yet. Nor is the effort to uncover Hamas's vast network of tunnels in Ra'afa.

This tunnel goes down over 28 meters Underneath the ground.

As well as along Gaza's border with Egypt.

Right behind me here is the Egypt-Gaza border. We are now driving along what is known as the Philadelphia Corridor, a strategic corridor that the Israeli military sees two months ago. They say they did so because they believe Hamas was smuggling weapons across from Egypt and then from this area deeper into Gaza.

Israeli forces say they have uncovered dozens of tunnel shafts here, but cannot definitively say if any of the tunnels stretching into Egypt were operational.

We found dozens like the tunnels that you saw, and we are researching those tunnels carefully, making sure which ones were functional, which ones are not functional anymore, because maybe they were from the Egyptian side stopped.

Will this be the last ground operation then, Rafa?

I won't say that, because what you will see is when we'll have intelligence that maybe there are hostages. One of the points in Gaza, we will operate.

Before leaving Gaza, our convoy drives by what's left of the Gaza side of the Rafe border crossing. Once a lifeline for millions of Palestinians, it now lies in ruins. The Israeli military says it is now facilitating a safe corridor for these trucks to deliver aid to Gaza via Israel's Kerem Shalom Crossing. But humanitarian aid groups say the roads are still not safe, and simply not enough aid is getting in as the war rages on.

During the nearly three hours that we spent on the ground in Raqqa, we didn't see a single Palestinian. This city that was once a safe haven for displaced Palestinians from across the Gaza Strip has been almost completely emptied out. More than a million Palestinians have been forced to flee that city, many of them heading for that coastal Al-Mawassi area where they are simply trying to survive. And now their hopes are simply resting on these ceasefire negotiations and the prospect of a deal. Jeremy Dimons, CNN, Jerusalem.