How far will hardliners get Netanyahu to go in Rafah?

Speaking recently in Tel Aviv, a close ally of Benjamin Netanyahu declared it would be “unthinkable” not to carry out a military offensive in Rafah to crush Hamas even if further hostage releases take place.

- KIM SENGUPTA

This is what appears to be unfolding on the ground now.

An imperative for moving into Rafah, said the very senior official, was the suspicion that Hamas was using tunnels in the area to smuggle weapons into Gaza with senior commanders directing the conflict from the city.

Yesterday morning, 12 hours after sealing off the border to Egypt with an armoured column, the Israeli military announced that it had already located three such tunnels, and expected to find more of them. A hunt, they continued, was underway to track down Yahya Sinwar and Mohammed Deif, the two Hamas chiefs who are yet to be killed or captured seven months into the war.

Israel has faced insistent demands from the US and other Western countries including the UK, Sunni Arab states with which it wants to build relations, as well as the UN and aid agencies to stop an offensive into Rafah – an attack which could lead to a humanitarian catastrophe to add to the terrible suffering in Gaza, where the death toll has risen to almost 35,000.

Netanyahu’s government has steadfastly rejected the calls to desist. It has, at the same time, attended the interminable ceasefire negotiations in Doha and now Cairo. Time has been an important factor in this. The latest round, in the Egyptian capital, was expected to go on for some while, scope enough for the Rafah mission to get underway.

Netanyahu’s announcement that the Rafah offensive would go ahead even if there was a truce made the chances of an agreement seem distant, as did a rocket attack on Rafah on the same day by Hamas which killed four Israeli soldiers, followed by Israeli air strikes in which 19 Palestinians died.