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The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said they had launched an operation in Rafah, a city located on the Gaza Strip’s southern border with Egypt, to reportedly target Hamas. In an X post on Tuesday (May 7), the IDF described its actions as a “precise counterterrorism operation to eliminate Hamas terrorists and infrastructure within specific areas of eastern Rafah began overnight, based on intelligence.”
In the last few months, Israel has repeatedly announced its intentions to invade Rafah. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in April: “We will enter Rafah because we have no other choice. We will destroy the Hamas battalions there, we will complete all the objectives of the war, including the return of all our hostages.”
The military action also comes soon after Israel did not agree to a peace deal with Palestinian militant group Hamas, brokered by Egypt and Qatar. While Hamas accepted the agreement, Israel said its “core demands” were not being met under it.
Why does Israel want to attack Rafah, and why have concerns been raised not just by Palestinians but also allies of Israel, like the United States? We explain.
In its post, the IDF said its troops had established “operational control of the Gazan side” of the Rafah border crossing, which helps in the movement of goods and people between Egypt and Gaza.
It added that mortars were recently being fired from the crossing to the nearby Kerem Shalom Crossing in Israel, “which killed 4 IDF soldiers and injured several others.” An Associated Press report said the Israeli 401st Brigade entered the Rafah crossing on Tuesday. In the past too, a few strikes have been reportedly launched from Israel towards Rafah.
Following Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, in which around 1,200 people died and 250 were taken hostage, Israel launched a military campaign on Gaza that has killed more than 34,000 people to date – the majority being women and children.
Israel has claimed it aims to completely “eliminate” Hamas and that some of its much-criticised actions – such as sending forces inside Gaza’s hospitals – have been against hidden Hamas targets.
On February 9, a translation of a message from the office of Israeli Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: “It is impossible to achieve the war objective of eliminating Hamas and leaving four Hamas battalions in Rafah. On the other hand, it is clear that a massive operation in Rafah requires the evacuation of the civilian population from the combat zones. That is why the Prime Minister directed the IDF and the defense establishment to bring to the cabinet a dual plan for both the evacuation of the population and the disbanding of the battalions.”
Essentially, Netanyahu has said that this military action will end only when Hamas is “eliminated”. “If we don’t eliminate the Hamas terrorists, these ‘new Nazis,’ the next massacre is only a question of time,” he said in January, as quoted in a Bloomberg report. He also said that telling Israel not to enter Rafah is like telling them to “lose the war” against Hamas.
According to the United Nations, more than 1.4 million people are currently in Rafah, which was once a city of 300,000 people. This is because Israeli forces attacked most other major areas of the narrow Gaza Strip. Barely a week after the Hamas attacks, on October 13, the IDF told 1.1 million people living in the north of Gaza to evacuate within 24 hours.
Rafah’s border crossing is crucial for the supply of food and fuel to Gaza. Since Gaza borders the Mediterranean Sea to its west and Israel to its east, its population has no other functioning checkpoints to exit the region at the moment. In November 2023, a partial opening of the Rafah crossing was allowed so that critically injured people and foreign nationals could go to Egypt.
Why Palestinians are worried
With the bombardment of the Strip in recent months, there are not many viable options for safety and shelter for Palestinians. Already, access to basic amenities such as food, water and electricity is limited. A top UN official recently told AP that north Gaza is now facing a “full-blown famine”.
Further, some also believe that this military movement could make way for more Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip. Back in 1967, Israel fought the Arab-Israeli war, with countries such as Egypt (which had controlled Gaza since 1957) and Jordan (which occupied the remaining Palestinian region of the West Bank since 1950) on the other side.
Israel won and took control of these regions after the war, but let go of some control in the 1990s after the Oslo Accords were signed with Palestinian leaders. However, Israelis continued living there (referred to as “settlers”). Its government withdrew settlements in 2005, claiming threats to their safety. “The purpose… was to improve Israel’s security and international status in the absence of peace negotiations with the Palestinians,” it said.
In March 2023, Israel’s Parliament “repealed a 2005 Act that saw four Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank dismantled at the same time as Israeli forces withdrew from the Gaza Strip,” AP reported.
It noted that this move came from Netanyahu’s far right-wing government, “which is dominated by settler leaders and allies, to promote settlement activity in the territory.”
A 2024 report from The New York Times also said: “A group of Israelis hoping to live in Gaza at the war’s end has already published maps imagining Jewish-majority towns dotting the territory. Far-right Israeli lawmakers have drafted plans to make such settlements legal. And Israel’s national security minister has called for Arab residents to leave Gaza so that Jews can populate the coastal strip.”
It quoted an Israeli reserve soldier, whose family lived in Gaza before 2005, as saying, “The minute the war is over, we’ll build our homes there. The question isn’t whether we will return when the fighting is over, but if there will be a Gaza.”
Israel’s strongest ally, the United States, has spoken about its attacks on Gaza earlier, with President Joe Biden saying on February 9 that its response was “over the top”. The US has been critical of the Israeli government at times, but it has not been able to convince it to stop the attacks altogether. Meanwhile, Israeli actions are increasingly being criticised both domestically and globally.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry earlier said any Israeli ground offensive on Rafah would have “disastrous consequences”. Qatar and Saudi Arabia also warned of repercussions. Egypt had threatened to suspend its 1979 peace treaty with Israel.
This is also significant because Egypt has refused to take in refugees from Gaza. The reluctance is likely explained by the fact that it does not want to become involved in a conflict which seems to have no definite end at the moment. Additionally, Egypt has been concerned about Hamas’s activities in the past.
“Arab countries and many Palestinians also suspect Israel might use this opportunity to force permanent demographic changes to wreck Palestinian demands for statehood in Gaza, the West Bank and east Jerusalem, which was also captured by Israel in 1967. [Egyptian President] El-Sissi repeated warnings… that an exodus from Gaza was intended to ‘eliminate the Palestinian cause … the most important cause of our region,’” an AP report from last year said.
