Finish the Job, Israel
Good on Israel for pushing on with its necessary and justified mission in Rafah to wipe out the last remaining Hamas battalions — even as the world shouts bad-faith condemnations. The operation, which on Tuesday saw tanks enter the city center, needs to continue until these Islamist killers are utterly defeated. Yes, the IDF made a deadly error with an air strike against Hamas terrorists Sunday that started a fire in a tent encampment, killing civilians. And that has yet again set off the antisemitic, anti-Israel crowd around the world.
But there’s no starker reminder of what Israel is up against. Remember that for the genocidal forces of Hamas, killing civilians is standard operating procedure. The more, the better — since it inevitably leads to heightened world pressure on the Jewish state.
Indeed, for the terrorists, this was far from the “tragic incident” Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu called the deaths. That goes for both Israeli and Palestinian civilians.
The Israeli airstrike was preceded by Hamas targeting Tel Aviv’s population, while embedding itself among Gazan noncombatants, so any response would be more likely to involve civilians.
The atrocities of Oct. 7 revealed that the Islamist killers do not scruple to murder the elderly, women and children in their attacks on the Jewish state. But Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif, Ismail Haniyeh and the other commanders of Hamas are responsible for killing far more Palestinians than the Israelis.
That’s thanks to their policy of inserting men and arms in civilian centers, like densely populated areas of Gaza, and hiding in a tunnel network while exposing noncombatants to military assaults.
Like the dozens who died in the airstrike: They were forced into harm’s way by the cynical cowardice of the terrorists allegedly fighting to liberate them.
Hamas could have ended the war at any time, simply by giving back the hostages. That its leadership has refused to do so proves that they are willing to “liberate” the Palestinians by ensuring their mass death.
Israel’s shrieking foes around the world, and in Washington, need to remember that.