Israeli officials believe that the southern Gaza city of Rafah is “not as important” for Hamas as other bastions where the Israel Defense Forces have conducted major ground operations, according to a top Israeli military spokesman.
“We took an operational plan for the war for approval by the political echelon,” IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari said at a conference in Tel Aviv. “Within this plan, we mapped out the war, which was estimated to be about a year of fighting. Within this year, we saw that we would first of all deal with Hamas’s greatest centers of power, which are mostly in northern Gaza and Khan Yunis.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has maintained, in recent months, that Israel cannot achieve the required victory over Hamas without a major ground operation in Rafah. Yet Hagari’s remarks may leave open the possibility for a more creative solution in the face of sustained U.S. opposition to a ground campaign.
“We will deal with Rafah in the way which is right for us,” Hagari said. “I want to tell the public so that they do not delude themselves: Even after we deal with Rafah, there will be terror. Hamas will move northwards and try to reconstitute itself, even in the next few days. In every place Hamas returns to, including in northern and central Gaza, we will return to operating.”
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Source: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/world/2996984/israel-downplays-significance-of-rafah/
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