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Netanyahu's personal ambitions in Rafah anger IOF Chief-of-Staff

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Israeli media
10 Feb 2024 16:10
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Israeli Channel 12's analysts have brought to light discord between Netanyahu and Halevi over the future invasion of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convenes the weekly Israeli cabinet meeting at the Security Ministry in "Tel Aviv", occupied Palestine, January 7, 2024. (AP)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's push for a full-scale invasion of the southernmost city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip has generated discord between him and the Israeli Commander-in-Chief Herzi Halevi, according to Israeli broadcaster Channel 12.

Channel 12's political affairs analyst, Yaron Avraham, said the dispute arose when Netanyahu discussed the continuation of the Israeli military operation with Halevi.

The Israeli Prime Minister who heads the Israeli war cabinet is reportedly rushing the Israeli military to take direct action in Rafah, while Halevi stresses that necessary conditions need to be made available before such action could be taken.

Among these conditions is the "evacuation" of Palestinians from Rafah, in coordination with Egypt.

Reading between the lines, both Israeli political and military leading figures agree on the mass expulsion and displacement of Palestinians. However, they disagree on the timeframe and the method of doing so.

Avraham says Netanyahu is conflating between the Israeli war objectives and his own personal ambitions. It has become widely accepted that the continuation of the war on Gaza and achieving what Netanhayhu describes as an "absolute victory" ensure that his political career lasts.

On that point, Channel 12's Amnon Abramovich said that "absolute victory" is neither a political nor military concept, saying that the term is only constricted to Netanyhu's political practice. The analyst called the Prime Minister a "coward" who cannot "complete his tasks."

Netanyahu orders Rafah invasion

Earlier on Friday, Israeli news website Ynet said the Israeli Prime Minister had ordered the IOF, in the same meeting with Halevi, to prepare for an invasion of Rafah. The Israeli media outlet said the IOF had already taken such measures and approved a preliminary plan for the aggression.

Netanyahu asserts that it is impossible for Israeli authorities to claim victory when there remain four untouched al-Qassam battalions in the small city of Rafah. His remarks indicate that the IOF had achieved the pre-set goal of "uprooting" the Palestinian Resistance in Khan Younis and the northern Gaza Strip. However, constant attacks on Israeli forces to the west of Gaza City and to the west of Khan Younis tell a different story.

In any case, an invasion of Rafah would be catastrophic for Palestinians, as around 1.4 million people have been cramped into the small city, after being forcibly displaced from refugee camps in the northern Gaza Strip, Gaza City, refugee camps in the central Gaza Strip, Khan Younis, and other Palestinian towns.

Side-by-side pictures of Rafah, the Gaza Strip, showing nearly empty areas in the small city on October 15, 2023, and overcrowded temporary structures set up by displaced Palestinians in the same area on February 4, 2024. (Amnesty International)

In fact, under the current conditions, with most displaced people located near the border with Egypt, the Israeli occupation would have executed a widely circulated Israeli plan to displace Palestinians to Egypt, a plot the Egyptian authorities have sternly opposed.

Human rights organizations have warned Israeli authorities against taking such steps, while the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine promised to turn Rafah into a "graveyard" for invading soldiers, marking the sensitivity of the situation.