When Israel responded to Iran’s unprecedented missile and drone attack in a measured military fashion on 19 April, some believed that Israeli prime minister BenjaminNetanyahu had agreed to show restraint in return for Joe Biden’s support for a military operation in Rafah. These rumours were dispelled this weekend when the US president reiterated his objection to a major military operation in the city during a call with Netanyahu.
This leaves Netanyahu between a rock and the hard place. Rafah, located in the southern end of the Gaza strip, is near the border with Egypt and close to Israel itself. It is the last and most significant of Hamas’s strongholds and as such is crucial to the Israeli Defence Forces’ (IDF) goal of removing the terror group from power and crippling its military capabilities.
Rafah should have been dealt with in the early weeks of the war while Israel still had international support
The problem for Netanyahu is, however, that a large scale operation in Rafah will almost certainly trigger widespread international condemnation, including from Israel’s allies.
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