GNITN - Special Edition

Israel At War – Day 236

Taking Control Of Rafah

Tunnels Found In Rafah

It should come as no surprise that Hamas built tunnels in Rafah as we read in a report from The Jerusalem Post. Unfortunately the IDF lost two soldiers in the process:

Two soldiers, one of them a combat officer from the 614th Battalion of the Combat Engineering Corps, were seriously injured in a battle in the northern Gaza Strip after encountering terrorists at close range. Additionally, a fighter from the Yahalom unit of the Combat Engineering Corps was seriously injured in a battle in the southern Gaza Strip.

The military said on Wednesday that it now had full operational control of the Philadelphi Corridor, which runs along the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. This effectively clamps down on any possible weapons flow to Hamas from the outside. Troops located 20 tunnels crossing into Egypt near the Philadelphi Corridor and 82 tunnel shafts. This information was passed on to Egypt. Egypt’s Al Qahera News denied the reports.

Officials added that this is only the start:

“It doesn’t mean that we have boots on the ground across all of the corridors, but it means we can control and we have the ability to cut off the oxygen line that Hamas has used for replenishing and movement in and around that area,” a military official said.

The IDF said Wednesday night that, over the past few weeks, troops found a tunnel shaft located 100 m. from the Rafah Crossing, one-and-a-half km. Long and containing several blast doors. It led to an underground tunnel route used by Hamas. Troops found a large cache of weapons, including short-range and ant-tank missiles, AK-47s, explosives, and grenades. The military said the tunnel included a hideout, toilets, and rooms. All were destroyed.

There was no indications that any hostages were held in these tunnels:

IDF chief spokesman R.-Adm. Daniel Hagari noted, “Our intelligence has not indicated so far that hostages have been transferred through these tunnels” that border with Egypt. He added that “there is wide-scale Egyptian defense on the border, as well as on Cairo’s interests. We update them on every tunnel we find. Every shaft that is located, we will deal with it.”

The IDF states that they getting closer to taking apart Hamas:

Israel has said since the beginning that its goal is to dismantle Hamas’s military capabilities. The IDF has maintained that the last intact Hamas battalions are in Rafah, prompting its limited operation there.

IDF Chief of Staff Maj.-Gen. Herzi Halevi, speaking to troops in Rafah on Wednesday, said, “This is the last brigade that remains with full capabilities, and therefore, we want to dismantle the Rafah Brigade. But we will deepen the achievement and bring Hamas to very low points. This requires a lot of professionalism, a lot of determination, a lot of values, knowing that completely dismantling Hamas is a national mission of Israel.”

Hamas Cries Foul

We also learn from the same Post report that Hamas officials in Rafah see things a little differently:

Rafah residents said Israeli tanks had pushed into Tel Al-Sultan in the west and Yibna and near Shaboura in the center before retreating towards a buffer zone on the border with Egypt rather than staying put as they have in other offensives.

“We received distress calls from residents in Tel Al-Sultan, where drones targeted displaced citizens as they moved from areas where they were staying toward the safe areas,” said Haitham al Hams, the deputy director of ambulance and emergency services in Rafah.

Can we trust this information since it is coming from people who routinely lie to make things look bad for Israel? The news media will lap this information up as totally true, although this report adds a disclaimer as it repeats it:

Palestinian health officials said 19 people had been killed in Israeli air strikes and shelling across Gaza. These officials do not differentiate between terrorists and civilians, and Israel has long maintained that Hamas fighters hide in plain sight in civilian areas. Gazan health authorities are inseparable from Hamas and cannot be verified by a third party. Officials further said that several people were wounded by Israeli fire and that stores containing aid were set ablaze in eastern Rafah.

The terrorist agencies are also making sure that the United States is listening, too:

Health Minister Majed Abu Raman urged Washington to pressure Israel to open the Rafah crossing to aid, saying there was no indication that Israeli authorities would do so soon and that patients were dying for lack of treatment.

The IDF will make mistakes from time to time and we must remember that this is a war, but I highly doubt the things they are telling us are on the up and up. We need to remember that these are the same authorities that accused Israel of bombing a hospital in Gaza and in reality it was a rocket they launched that went awry. There is little if any trust but verify with these folks.

Fighting Could Last Into 2025

While some are saying that the war in Israel will end more quickly, some inside Israel see it lasting much longer as see in an article from The Times Of Israel:

A senior Israeli official predicted on Wednesday that the war in Gaza would continue at least through the rest of the year, as international pressure on Israel to end fighting only grows.

National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said in an interview with Kan public radio that “this year, we expect another seven months of combat, in order to deepen our achievement and achieve what we define as the destruction of the military and governing capabilities of both Hamas and the Islamic Jihad.”

Hanegbi mentions that there will be varying levels of fighting when he asserts the 2025 timeframe and he is most likely correct that rooting out Hamas and even terrorism from every nook and cranny of Gaza could take longer. He also said that his assessment isn’t his alone:

Hanegbi noted that the Israel Defense Forces have previously stated that it expects the entirety of 2024 to be a period of war, and five months into the year, the assessment remains unchanged.

Speaking from Cyprus, where he is part of a delegation dealing with the inspection of aid for Gaza passing through there, Hanegbi said that the current fighting is Gaza is “not just justified and not just essential, but without it there will be no rebuilding, and we won’t be able to maintain our independence.”

The ongoing battle in Rafah, widely criticized around the world, “is not for no reason… we need to shut the border between Egypt and Gaza, because for the past 17 years there has been a kingdom of smuggling that today we are feeling with every rocket, every explosive device, every missile,” he said.

He reiterated the known goals for this war:

The national security adviser reiterated that Israel has set three clear goals for its end to the war in Gaza: destroying the infrastructure of Hamas; bringing home the hostages; and removing any threat to Israel emanating from the Gaza Strip.

He doesn’t see anyone but Israel providing the ongoing protection needed:

Hanegbi said that the IDF is currently “in control of 75% of the Philadelphi Route, and I believe it will be in control of it all with time. Together with the Egyptians, we must ensure that… weapons smuggling is prevented.” In the long term, he said, “I know that nobody is going to volunteer to protect us from inside Gaza — not the Emiratis and not the Saudis or the Jordanians.”

Hanegbi ended his comments in the report by telling us that Israel doesn’t want to rule Gaza, but they do want to end the terrorist threats coming from it and letting peaceful citizens rise up:

The Philadelphi Route is the Israeli name given to the strip of Gaza that abuts the border with Egypt. Several hours after Hanegbi’s interview, the IDF announced that it had established full “operational control” over the route. The Rafah Crossing between Egypt and Gaza has been shut since the IDF began its ground operations in the city earlier this month, incensing Cairo.

Hanegbi added, however that “we very much don’t want to rule Gaza,” pointing to the 2.2 million citizens who he said spent years “as captives, taken hostage for 17 years by a murderous terror group,” expressing hope that a new civilian leadership can emerge from the Strip. “We’re trying to plan what will come after Hamas.”

I believe Hanegbi is a tad optimistic about the plans for Gaza after the war ends, but I share his hope for the area. I pray that there will be a road forward for peaceful coexistence and that all sides will work to find it.