After Hamas attack and waffling, IDF readies for Rafah op

May 6, 2024 9:53 am | News, Ticker, Virtual Jerusalem

After months of delay and mounting pressure not to enter Rafah, Israel appears prepared to enter the southern Gaza enclave, the last redoubt of terror forces and the presumed location of Israeli hostages.

Defying intense American pressure not to carry out the Rafah operation, it appears that a final decision has been made to send forces massively into Gaza again to topple at last the Hamas regime and rescue Israeli hostages after negotiations led to an impasse.

Israeli officials blamed Hamas for the failure of talks, with the terror group continuing to insist on an explicit Israeli agreement to end the fighting. Even reported American guarantees to force a halt to Israeli military actions was insufficient for Hamas to say yet to what Biden Administration officials called an “extraordinarily generous” offer accepted in principle by the Israeli side.

The IDF dropped leaflets into eastern Rafah neighborhoods, warning residents to evacuate temporarily their homes. Robocalls were made and text messages sent.

The last straw was a deadly Hamas attack on the Kerem Hashalom crossing on the Egyptian border, which resulted in 3 IDF deaths and 11 injuries. If there were any doubts before, the exact targeting of the crossing post by terrorist mortars fired from Rafah put an end to speculation and brought talks to a point of collapse. It was as if Hamas was baiting the IDF to attack.

On Monday, responding to claims by Hamas and an anonymous Israeli official quoted in The New York Times blaming Netanyahu personally for undermining talks, a statement from the Prime Minister’s office called the claims a “complete lie.” It added: “Hamas is the one that sabotages any deal by not moving one millimeter from its extreme demands that no Israeli government could accept, first and foremost, that Israel withdraw from Gaza and end the war.”

CIA Director William Burns, who reportedly gave assurances to Hamas that Israel would not resume fighting, is to visit Jerusalem today in hopes of keeping hopes alive. The Times reported that US officials said that Hamas had been on the brink of accepting the deal on Saturday before a very senior Israeli official, widely reported to be Netanyahu, said that a Rafah operation would take place whether not there is a deal.

2 Comments

  1. Private Elite Proxies

    My family all the time say that I am killing my time here at net, except I know I am getting know-how daily by reading thes good articles or reviews.

  2. David Barrett Dr

    It is so hard for me to understand how stupid top leaders in their various countries are, and I a. m including Pres Biden , despite his oft said love for Israel . He knows full well there has been no genocide; he knows the figures for non combatants killed put out buy Al Jazeera and Hamas are overtly exaggerated . He knows what Israels representative Gilad Erdan said in UN is true. These so called leaders know that Hamas does not want truce..they want Israel to attack Rafah so more innocents ( HA HA ) can be killed furthering the civilians uprisings by dimwits in their various countries; furthering Iranian proxies to continue firing on Israel etc etc. When will they learn that vermin have to be purged?

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