Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the southern Gaza region of Rafah on Thursday, where he underscored the importance of securing the Gaza-Egyptian border and keeping military pressure on Hamas as negotiations to free hostages continue. “The military pressure that they are applying here, to the throat of Hamas, is helping us, together with the steadfast insistence on our just demands, to advance the hostages deal—including our demand to free the maximum number of hostages already in the first stage of the outline,” said Netanyahu in Hebrew comments translated in a press release by his office. “This double pressure is not delaying the deal—it is advancing it.”
The symbolic location for the Israeli leader’s comments—one of the final sections of Gaza invaded by the IDF—also added geographic significance to Netanyahu’s words. His trip to Rafah included visiting an overlook of the critical Philadelphia Corridor border region with Egypt where Hamas once smuggled weapons into Gaza via underground tunnels. “Our holding the Philadelphi Corridor and the Rafah Crossing are vital for the future,” said Netanyahu, who also praised IDF soldiers in the region for their “incredible achievements.”
“Their operations both underground and aboveground are essential to the security of Israel,” he continued.
Israel’s war in Gaza was launched after Hamas’ massive terror rampage on October 7 in which 1,200 Israelis were killed—mostly civilians—and hundreds kidnapped. Since then, Israel has secured the release of more than 100 hostages via a deal with Hamas and freed others, but 120 remain captive.
Netanyahu has repeatedly said that Israeli military pressure on Hamas is key to driving the terror group to a deal to release more hostages. That message was also relayed by Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in a nighttime call with United States Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin earlier this week.
“IDF operations in Gaza have led to the conditions necessary to achieve an agreement for the return of hostages, which is the highest moral imperative at this time,” Gallant was quoted as saying in an Israeli summary of the call published on Wednesday.
Part of those operations include targeted attacks on Hamas leadership, including a recent strike against Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif. While Israel has not yet declared Hamas’ number-two man in Gaza dead, it’s a key part of their approach and an important part of Gallant’s discussion with Austin. Per the Israeli press release, Gallant’s Gaza assessment had a “focus on IDF operations to detect and engage senior Hamas leadership. In this regard, Minister Gallant detailed the precise operation targeting Hamas military leader Mohammed Deif—referred to as the ‘Osama bin Laden of Gaza.’”
While it remains unclear if Deif was killed in the strike, Israel’s pressure on Hamas is building. The official IDF page on X (formerly Twitter) published a summary on Wednesday of the military accomplishments in the Gaza war. In addition to hitting more than 60,000 terrorist targets in Gaza, the operation has also eliminated “half of the leadership of Hamas’ military wing; including 6 brigade commanders, over 20 battalion commanders, and approximately 150 company commanders.”
A graphic included in the post named Hamas’ deputy military commander—Marwan Issa—as one of seven members of Hamas’ military leadership that have been killed so far.
Those military accomplishments were performed by Israel’s soldiers, who Netanyahu plans to praise in his upcoming speech to the US Congress next week.
“I am going to present the justice of Israel’s cause, but I am also going to present the heroism of Israel, which I see here,” said Netanyahu on Thursday. “I see here Matan Algerbali, a commander who was wounded in the stomach in the first days of the fighting, recovered, came back, and is a battalion commander here.
“And I see the soldiers here, who are fighting in the field, the logistics personnel, the doctors; it is hard to believe what is happening here. This is the pride of the people of Israel. With such spirit, we will achieve the total victory.”
(By Joshua Spurlock, www.themideastupdate.com, July 18, 2024)