The Ottoman withdrawal back from Khan Yunis and Shellal, put enough distance between the two forces to require a pause in the advance, while the railway was laid to Rafa. By the end of February 1917, of railway had been laid (at a rate of 1 kilometre a day), of metalled road, of wire and brushwood roads, and of water pipeline had been constructed. And the Royal Navy undertook to land stores on the beach at Deir el Belah as soon as required and until the railway approached the Wadi Ghazzee.