Destroying Hamas, the Ultimate Goal

"It is impossible to achieve the goal of the war of eliminating Hamas by leaving four Hamas battalions in Rafah."

"On the contrary, it is clear that intense activity in Rafah requires that civilians evacuate the areas of combat."

Office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Palestinians inspect a car hit by an Israeli strike, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, February 10, 2024. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa

The Israeli military was ordered on Friday to prepare a twofold plan of immediate action. The first, to evacuate Palestinian civilians from Rafah, the densely populated southern city in Gaza. Once that process has seen completion a ground invasion by the Israel Defense Forces is expected to take place. The order, given by the Prime Minister of Israel arrived despite international criticism, particularly from the highest levels of the U.S. government who foresee military action by Israel in Rafah as a disaster-in-waiting.

 

The decision was made, however and is meant to proceed expeditiously after four months of intense fighting between the IDF and the terrorist group Hamas, alongside other Palestinian terrorist groups in Gaza. Ground forces are prepared to move into the city bordering Egypt. The prewar population of Rafah was about 280,000. The United Nations states that Rafah now shelters about 1.4 million people living with relatives, in shelters or sprawling tent camps, having fled the fighting taking place in other areas of Gaza.

 

It is a moot point whether it is Israel's responsibility in a time of violent conflict to protect a civilian population thrown into the path of retribution and removal of an existential threat to the population of Israel, or that of the terrorist group which governs the Gaza Strip and which receives majority support from that civilian population. Which by the expedient of surrendering to a military tasked to prevent it from any further assaults within Israel, could spare Palestinians from war's ongoing dangers.

 

Hamas leaders  have made it abundantly clear, speaking in very public fora that nothing will deter them from mounting one deadly attack after another on Israel. The October 7 assault that struck southern Israel in a sudden influx of violent marauders -- who set out to slaughter Jews, to mass-rape Israeli women, to murder their elders and their children, to take hundreds of civilian hostages in a show of savagely barbaric force with its horrific component of sadistic pleasure -- initiated the current war.

 

Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, take shelter in a tent camp, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, at the border with Egypt, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, February 8, 2024. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa

It was never difficult to find ample evidence of the entertainment and pleasure taken by the terrorists since body cams were expressly used for the purpose of 'public relations' by a people lacking a moral code, to express their celebratory joy with the success of their mission in executing helpless people, setting fire to their homes consigning entire families to a horrible death, mounting an attack on a holiday music festival with thousands of Israeli youth in attendance to slaughter hundreds and take others hostage.

Actions have consequences, and actions of depraved maleficence in particular have consequences of wholesale dread consequences for those on the receiving end of punishment for unconscionable villainy. Rafah is now considered by the Israeli military and its government to represent the final stronghold for Hamas in Gaza, following four months of relentless conflict.

 

Prime Minister Netanyahu ordered his military and security officials to arrive at a 'combined plan' to include both a mass evacuation of civilians and the destruction of Hamas forces. The people of Gaza, the Palestinians who 'voted' overwhelmingly for the terrorist group to lead them are now victims of war. Their plight has moved the international community in a way that the victims of the Hamas slaughter of 1,200 Jewish lives failed to, and the pressure applied to the Israeli government's offensive is enormous.

 

The United Nations claims that millions have been displaced in Gaza, resulting in a humanitarian crisis of food shortages along with a lack of medical services.  This is the same United Nations whose arm of support for Palestinian 'refugees' -- UNRWA -- has been accused of complicity with Hamas. A charge with ample evidence to support it. Not only have hospitals and schools in Gaza been co-opted by Hamas for weapons storage and command posts, but UNRWA's Gaza headquarters has been revealed to house a sophisticated underground executive command headquarters for Hamas.

While pressure has been placed by the United Nations and Israel's Western allies to ensure humanitarian aid enters Gaza, Hamas operatives have taken possession of that humanitarian aid rather than see it distributed among the population. Looted aid is now available -- for sale to Palestinians in markets supplying ample food to those who will pay inflated prices -- the proceeds benefiting Hamas. This is the Hamas that uses its people as security shields, endangering them by operating and securing themselves in dense residential areas.

Israeli air strikes have begun. Egypt warns Palestinians it will not accept their entry, even while it warns Israel that complete destabilization will challenge its peace treaty with Israel. Friction, always tense between the U.S. officials who are negotiating between Qatar, Egypt, Hamas and Israel, is at its height. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken attempting to mediate a ceasefire has once again failed to secure his goal.

Prime Minister Netanyahu has made it abundantly clear that he intends to settle for nothing outside of "total victory" in destroying the Hamas military machinery and governing capabilities. The issue of Israeli hostages remaining in Hamas captivity is one of burning rage among Israelis in the knowledge of the hostages' plight of ongoing torment and abuse.

Smoke billows during Israeli bombardment of Khan Yunis, not far from Rafah  SAID KHATIB / AFP