Israel -- Going It Alone -- As Usual

"[The] surprise [warning has caught Israel off guard and will compel the war cabinet to reconsider whether and how it will enter Rafah]."

"If it will bear the consequence of going in without American support, or if it will stop the operation, which will allow Hamas to be unharmed in the area."

Yaakov Amidror, former National security advisor to Prime Minister Netanyahu 

"Israel will continue to fight Hamas until its destruction."

"There is no war more just than this."

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz

"[Biden's decision is] disappointing and frustrating. [It] could harm Israel's ability to obtain one of this war's main objectives -- toppling Hamas, for a better future for the entire region."

"Any pressure on Israel, any limitations on it, even from close allies who care for our interests, are being interpreted by our enemies ... as something that gives them hope."

Gilad Erdan, Israeli envoy to the United Nations

Displaced Palestinians in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip carry their belongings as they prepare to leave following an evacuation order by the Israeli army on May 6, 2024. (AFP)

 

In the sobering wake of American President Joe Biden's warning that his administration will see to it that the United States would stop sending offensive weapons shipments to Israel, should the Israeli military advance into Rafah, Israel has been sent into crisis mode, the war cabinet forced to recalibrate next steps of the war against Hamas.  Rafah, the southern city in Gaza harbours over a million Palestinians. Most of whom were coerced by Hamas to migrate to Rafah where they could find safe harbour.

 

What they found was that Rafah was the very place where four of the Hamas six battalions were being stationed. Which accounts for the Israel Defense Forces preparations to enter Rafah for the very specific purpose of rounding up or demolishing the battalions and their weaponry in their bid to destroy Hamas's military capabilities and its entire infrastructure, to neuter its capacity to carry on further destructive incursions into Israel, to slaughter Jews, as they have promised to do. 

 

The presence of Palestinian civilians in such large numbers, orchestrated by Hamas has its purpose and its purpose was to rouse concerns over the fate of the civilians in the line of fire while the IDF engages with Hamas.  Palestinian terrorist calculations to use the non-combatant population as human shields has two purposes, the most obvious one is that they are used as shields, their lives dispensable in the greater interests of terrorist lives saved, as well as using civilian deaths as propaganda fuel in portraying Israel as bent on 'genocide'.

Israel, in accommodating itself to the situation, long familiar to it from past encounters with Hamas and their human-shield strategies placing civilians in direct line of fire while protecting the precious lives of the terrorist operatives in its network of tunnels which civilians are barred entry to, has notified the civilian population that it must decamp from Rafah, to go elsewhere, primarily in areas prepared to receive them where they will be out of the danger zone. The difficulties inherent in moving a million people to safety are legion.

Ceasefire negotiations with Hamas where Israel's first line of demands is the freeing of the hostages left in the hands of the terrorists have proven a stumbling block; many of those Israeli hostages may no longer be alive, and those that are, still have immense value to Hamas as bargaining tools. Israel's points that must be met for it to agree to a limited ceasefire are rejected by Hamas, and Hamas makes demands that make it obvious that it feels itself to have an upper hand in the negotiations.

Vows to dismantle the four remaining battalions in Rafah and to seal off the border with Egypt are being repeated by Israeli officials in response to Biden's threat. Israel's concern is the subterranean tunnel network at Rafah known to facilitate the smuggling of weapons. Recent days have seen an estimated 110,000 people evacuate from eastern Rafah, but that number is small in comparison to the total whose security is of primary consideration.

"We confirm that any military offensive in Rafah will not be a picnic to the fascist occupation army."

"Our brave resistance on top of them, the Qassam Brigades, is fully prepared to defend our people and defeat this enemy."

Hamas statement

A picture taken on May 6, 2024, shows smoke billowing following bombardment east of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. (AFP)