Israel's top security officials have no doubt that going into Rafah is only question "when" and not "if". This week, as the whole world has been issuing warnings that Israel must not enter the southernmost city in the strip for fear of a catastrophe, military officials have reminded us that people said the same before the troops entered Gaza City and the Shifa Hospital; the military officials have also had to remind us that people were concerned it would not be able to show the same level of performance after the first ceasefire, only to prove the doomsayers wrong.
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People also warned the army not to enter the central refugee camps and Khan Younis, and that it would have to halt operations if there were to be a major incident in which many troops would be killed – and unfortunately there was such an event – and yet the fighters' have continued making inroads to all parts of the Gaza Strip.
The gloom and doom before entering Rafah will ultimately be proven ill-advised as well.
"Time works for those who work with it," senior security officials told Israel Hayom. The population will be relocated, the tents placed in a new area, and aid centers and temporary hospitals set up by foreign countries in Rafah will be dismantled and set up elsewhere where the Gazan population will reside. There are currently 1.5 million people in Rafah, after the relocation about half a million people will be there, it's really the origami art when folding the page into six parts – we folded from the north of the strip towards Wadi Gaza, and from there to the coastal areas, then to Khan Younis, now to the population in Rafah, and it will move automatically to a new place. This is not a mission that is beyond our capabilities, and of course it can be accomplished, security officials say.
The IDF fought and dismantled Hamas battalions in the north of the strip even as 300,000 locals were there. The situation in Rafah is not unlike what we have seen over the past four months of fighting. Although it is slightly more complex, the four complete Hamas battalions in the area will be dismantled.
Three months ago, when the maneuver was only just starting, people began envisioning the situation we would face in Rafah, almost to a tee. In a briefing by a security official to journalists, Israel Hayom was told, "It will take time. When the brigade can move from north to south of the strip freely and in a short period of time, we will know that we are in the right place to achieve the goals." We have now reached this situation.
A brigade can now perform in one single night what a division had performed in a few days. Almost the entire Hamas command field staff has been hit. The terrorist organization's chain of command no longer runs from the top down; every order is just locally communicated on the ground. A deputy now makes decisions that used to be made only by Hamas brigade commanders.
On October 7, the IDF was dealt a crushing defeat. While the families of the captives and dead feel this on a daily basis, among the army chiefs, a bubble has emerged right when the fighting started; in this bubble, the IDF has managed to dismantle almost all of Hamas' capabilities. The terrorists' command and control capabilities have been crushed, there is no free passage for the population from south to north, while only 25% of the residents remain in their place. The images Hamas has been spreading of it supposedly reasserting control of the strip through its policemen are a two-minute show for the local cameras; immediately afterward they are eliminated or disbanded.
But even in the fighting bubble, commanders have a duty to remember the worthy and most noble goal – the return of the kidnapped. The security establishment has been working hard, with significant maneuvering while trying to avoid areas where, according to intelligence estimates, the captives are held – all while devising and implementing more plans.
This is the army's ultimate moral duty – to deliver results. Meanwhile, the civilian echelon must know how to leverage these gains in negotiations for the return of the captives, and in ensuring our future for the next few decades.
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