Former PM Naftali Bennett explains why it is imperative for Israel to take Rafah. “Why is the conquest of Rafah so essential? 1. At the moment, Sinwar does not feel enough of a survival threat, and he conducts himself quietly in hostage negotiations. That way you can't get a deal. When we have already advanced to Rafah and he will feel that the fire is pressing him, he will show much more enthusiasm for the deal. 2. It is said that there are four Hamas battalions in Rafah, but in fact there are about twice as many, since many Hamas fighters fled there from the rest of the Strip. Their ability to escape from Rafah is less than it was before, since the IDF took care of many tunnels throughout Gaza. You saw that in the raid on Shifa, the terrorists had difficulty escaping because the tunnels were no longer usable, and thus we were able to eliminate or capture many hundreds of terrorists. I mean, the terrorists in Rafah are pretty much imprisoned. Their elimination or capture would deal an unbearable blow to the remaining strength of Hamas. 3. The capture of Rafah will make it possible to cut off the smuggling tunnels from Sinai to Gaza and in fact we will be able to completely stop the smuggling of ammunition and weapons into Gaza. As long as we don't do this, Hamas will be able to continue to smuggle out IDF and strengthen itself again. Therefore, the government's position regarding Rafah is correct. On the other hand, it is not clear to me why the government has been procrastinating for three months. The passing time is very bad: it allows the terrorists to organize, the international pressure against us to grow stronger and stops the fighting momentum. Whoever wants to do it, do it already.” He’s right.
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