Moving ahead with Israel’s goal of eliminating Hamas from Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved the plans for the IDF to enter Rafah, Hamas’ last stronghold, where it is believed the Israeli hostages held by Gaza remain.
#BREAKING: Prime Minister Netanyahu approved the plans for a military operation in Rafah. The IDF is getting prepared for the operational side and for the evacuation of the population from the area
— Amichai Stein (@AmichaiStein1) March 15, 2024
Noting the effort by some outside of Israel to stop Israel from finishing the war against Hamas, Ophir Falk, an advisor to Netanyahu, wrote in The Wall Street Journal on Thursday, “Mounting international pressure to end the war won’t weaken Israel’s resolve to accomplish its mission of destroying Hamas, freeing the hostages and guaranteeing that Gaza will never pose a threat to Israel again. Detractors dismiss total victory as implausible, but the facts on the ground indicate otherwise. Israel has already dismantled 18 of Hamas’s 24 battalions, incapacitated more than 21,500 Hamas terrorists—about two-thirds of its force, including two of the top four leaders—and destroyed significant terror tunnels. By contrast, it took U.S. military forces nine months to take out 5,000 ISIS fighters in Mosul.”
Falk quoted John Spencer, chairman of urban warfare studies at West Point, calling Israel’s military efforts and their studied avoidance of creating as many civilian casualties as they can, as “unprecedented.” Spencer added the IDF was setting the “gold standard” in that regard.
“According to retired British Col. Richard Kemp, the average combatant-to-civilian death ratio in Gaza is about 1 to 1.5. This is astonishing since, according to the United Nations, the average combatant-to-civilian death ratio in urban warfare has been 1 to 9,” Falk noted.
“Hamas has four terror brigades in Rafah. That city is Hamas’s last stronghold, and its defeat is a prerequisite for victory,” he stated. “Whoever pressures Israel to refrain from entering Rafah is preventing the destruction of Hamas and the freeing of Israel and Gazan civilians from Hamas’s stranglehold. Gen. David Petraeus, who led the 2007 American surge in Iraq, said last week that the ‘key now is to not stop until Hamas is fully destroyed.’”
“Asking Israel to stop the war now is akin to telling the Allies to stop halfway to Berlin in World War II,” Falk pointed out. “If Hamas isn’t eradicated, genocidal terrorists will continue to emerge. As Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told new Israel Defense Forces cadets last week, ‘when we defeat the murderers of October 7, we are preventing the next 9/11.’”
“Total victory is within reach. Israel will finish the job. Anything less will endanger the rest of the civilized world,” he concluded.