Israel’s promise to intensify Rafah operation undermines domestic and foreign support

JERUSALEM — The Israeli government is moving forward with intensifying military operations against Hamas in Rafah, despite increased international isolation, deepening tensions with President Biden and pressure from Israeli society critical of efforts to free hostages held in Gaza.

Israel describes the city of Rafah, in southern Gaza, as the stronghold of the last pieces of Hamas’ conventional army, and sees the border zone with Egypt as a loose sieve where weapons and supplies flow freely to Hamas.

Biden said he takes a red line against an Israeli military operation in Rafah that causes large-scale destruction and death of Palestinian civilians. But the administration has so far not described the escalating Israeli military operations in the southern Gaza Strip as crossing the threshold of a full-scale war.

The Israeli military has seriously increased the number of troops present in and around Rafah over the two weeks since operations began, said Seth Frantzman, an adjunct fellow at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

“They are basically moving along this very narrow area of ​​land that is along the Gaza-Egypt border, which is about 8 miles of border, and I think they have occupied about 50% of it,” he said.

“They are operating in a narrow band. I think that’s intentional, so they don’t have to go into the really urbanized, more densely populated areas.”

But the vast majority of the international community and humanitarian groups are sounding the alarm that Israel’s ongoing military operations are putting nearly 1 million Palestinians, displaced several times, at risk, and that humanitarian assistance deliveries have not yet increased. enough to satisfy the needs of the people. .

“The claim that people in Gaza can move to “safe” or “humanitarian” areas is false. Each time, it puts the lives of civilians at serious risk”, published Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner general of the agency that provides aid to Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, on the social platform X.

He warned that 800,000 Palestinians had been forced to flee, worsening the humanitarian crisis.

“Gaza has no safe zones. No place is safe. No one is safe,” he said.

And the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued a ruling on Friday for Israel to suspend its military operations in Rafah, amid concerns about acts of genocide against Palestinians.

The ICJ does not have a law enforcement mechanism and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu previously rejected international pressure to withdraw military operations from his country.

“No pressure and no decision in any international forum will stop Israel from defending itself against those who seek our destruction,” the prime minister said last week.

The statement came in response to an announcement by the International Criminal Court prosecutor earlier this week that he is seeking arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over allegations of starvation as a war crime.

And earlier this week, Ireland, Norway and Spain took the initiative to recognize a Palestinian state, a move that was criticized by Israeli authorities but hailed by Palestinian advocates as an elevation of their human rights.

“The recognitions… contribute positively to all international efforts to end the illegal Israeli occupation and achieve peace and stability in the region,” the Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

But Netanyahu and his supporters say these actions reward Hamas for carrying out the most devastating attack against the Jewish people since the Holocaust. More than 1,100 people were killed in the October 7 raid and 250 people were taken hostage.

A week-long ceasefire at the end of November, mediated by the US, Egypt and Qatar, managed to secure the release of more than 100 hostages held by Hamas, easing the fighting against Palestinians in Gaza and intensifying humanitarian aid deliveries.

But international mediators were unable to reach another agreement to secure the hostages’ release.

The Israeli military said Friday it had recovered the bodies of three hostages from an undisclosed location in Gaza — bringing the known number of hostages to about 125, with about 36 believed dead.

On Thursday, the Hostage Families Forum released a video of Hamas’ violent kidnapping of seven young Israelis who were serving as observers at an Israeli military base in southern Israel. The video was released as part of a pressure campaign on the Israeli government and the international community to do more to secure his release.

But Netanyahu has promised that military pressure is the only way to get Hamas to release the hostages.

“We are committed to getting the other half [of the hostages] also. This is through the application of military pressure and when he [Hamas chief in Gaza Yahya Sinwar] feels that the pressure is too strong, he releases the hostages,” Netanyahu said in an interview with Dan Senor on the “Call Me Back” podcast.

Israeli authorities have not given a timeline for how long they expect an operation in Rafah to last. Israel delayed the start of the operation for weeks amid concerns from the Biden administration about the civilian death toll in the region. Israel’s offensives in Gaza have killed more than 35,500 Palestinians in the past seven months, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians.

“What we are going to see is whether there is a lot of death and destruction in this operation or whether it is more precise and proportionate. And we will see that happen,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters on Wednesday, following meetings with Israeli officials in Jerusalem last week.

Most Israelis support Israel’s ongoing military operations, but fatigue sets in amid deep divisions over the military death toll – more than 600 soldiers killed in action – concern over efforts to free hostages who may yet be alive; growing tensions with the US and international isolation.

“The public is becoming frustrated with the war effort,” said Shmuel Rosner, a senior fellow at the Institute for Jewish Popular Policy, who conducted regular polls of the Israeli public before and after the Hamas attack on October 7.

“We Israelis, in general, support the war. In general, we still understand that winning the war is essential for Israel. But after eight months, as you would expect, there is growing fatigue, frustration and political struggles.”

Although Netanyahu is in a relatively strong position at the head of the government – he is unlikely to be forced into early elections – he faces growing public opposition from members of his own party, coalition lawmakers and increased attacks from the left-wing opposition.

Gallant called on Netanyahu to present a public plan for Gaza, without Hamas’ control over the strip’s Palestinian population. And Benny Gantz, a member of the Cabinet during the war, gave a June 8 deadline to leave the coalition if Netanyahu is unable to devise a post-war strategy.

A potential Gantz departure is unlikely to immediately trigger elections in Israel. A handful of members of Netanyahu’s 64-member coalition would have to defect. There are frustrations across the spectrum, with members of the far-right and center-right coalition upset that Netanyahu has delayed military operations in Rafah due to international pressure.

“I think it took too long,” said Dan Illouz, a Knesset member who is part of Netanyahu’s Likud party.

“I think the idea was that if there was an understanding with the Americans and the diplomatic price had to be paid for the Rafah operation… they wanted to reach some kind of agreement so that the diplomatic costs would be lower. … I think what happened was the diplomatic cost was much greater.”

This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story