Why Is Israel So Obsessed With Rafah?
On May 6, Israel launched an offensive on Rafah, a Palestinian city along the Southern Gaza Strip where 1.4 million Palestinians were taking shelter. As per the Times of Israel, 95 thousand Palestinians have been displaced, 45 killed and 200 others wounded. The strike came in after Hamas’s reported acceptance of initial ceasefire negotiations. As per Benjamin Netanyahu, the attack was a “mistake” by the Israeli forces, however as I shall examine in the following analysis, the statement doesn’t hold much factual ground.
According to the Times of Israel, Netanyahu said that Israel would need to “take care” of the entire Philadelphi Corridor in eastern Rafah to prevent weapon smuggling, suggesting that intentions to interfere in Rafah were already there before this “mistake” happened. Moreover, according to Al Jazeera analysts, this attack is part of Netanyahu’s broader plans of depopulating Gaza by forcing them to flee toward Egypt. This line of thinking is also upheld by the president of Egypt, Abdel Fattah El Sisi who stated that Israel’s displacement of Palestinians into Egypt is merely a blow to the cause of Palestinian self-determination.
Further speculation also arises if we contemplate the broader scope of the event. UN officials have asserted that the attack on Rafah will catalyze a humanitarian crisis and the United States has actively condemned it. Given such stark international opposition, one is left to wonder why a country such as Israel which relies so heavily on the support of the United States would forfeit international opinion. Moreover, Israel claimed to build “humanitarian islands” for the evacuation of refugees but no clear details on the logistics were provided and neither is undertaking such a mammoth task a pragmatic possibility within this limited time frame.
The fact that Israel dismissed Hamas’s willingness to negotiate suggests that perhaps the real intention behind the war isn’t the attainment of peace but rather an advancement of political interests.
The fact that Israel dismissed Hamas’s willingness to negotiate suggests that perhaps the real intention behind the war isn’t the attainment of peace but rather an advancement of political interests. Consequently, one may speculate that the decision to bomb Rafah and dislocate Palestinians rather than pursue any viable negotiations is an attempt by Netanyahu to please his ultra-conservative trustees who may otherwise pull out of his support in a climate of Netanyahu’s diminishing autonomy.
It is reasonable to conclude that there are ulterior motives for uprooting Hamas or guarding security that Israel is trying to fulfill here and perhaps the answer lies in Israel’s problematic history and political Zionism. I.e., to deny Palestinian people their land and attain the objectives of settler colonialism.
