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The U.S. and Israel Negotiate Over the Fate of Hamas' Last Bastion

(National Interest) Enia Krivine - Six months into the war with Hamas, the best thing for Israelis and innocent Gazans is for the IDF to get as many civilians out of harm's way as possible and crush Hamas' last bastion in Rafah. Israel can move people gradually, block by block, the way it operated in the early months of the war. The task is enormous but not insurmountable. Once this is done, the U.S. and international partners will have a better chance at safely transporting aid into Gaza. To defeat Hamas in Gaza, Israel must stem the flow of weapons into the enclave. Rafah is the known entry point of weapons smuggled via tunnels from Egypt. Ensuring that the Hamas weapons smuggling routes are closed and remain closed will require Israel's military engineers to enter Rafah and seal the subterranean smuggling routes. In March, President Joe Biden announced that the U.S. military would build a pier off the coast of Gaza to facilitate aid entry. To protect the lives of the estimated 1,000 U.S. men and women in uniform who will administer the humanitarian effort, the IDF must finish the job in Rafah. The U.S. should back Israel's Rafah operation and work with the Jewish state to move civilians to safer ground. The writer is the senior director of the Israel Program and the National Security Network at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
2024-04-14 00:00:00
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