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IDF Plans for Rafah Op Draw on Extensive Israeli Experience
Israeli soldiers operating in the Gaza Strip. Photo: Reuters/IDF Handout
JNS.org – As the War Cabinet waits for a reply from Hamas to the latest far-reaching, unprecedented Israeli proposal for a hostage release deal, the IDF has drawn up operational plans for large-scale urban warfare in Hamas’s last remaining bastion in Rafah, southern Gaza.
These plans rely on the massive experience the IDF has gained over recent months while fighting in Gaza City and Khan Yunis, including the ability to evacuate masses of civilians.
The IDF will need to move over a million people out of Rafah, an ability it honed when it moved even more civilians out of Gaza City between October and December, but this time, the military will need to set up checkpoints and screen those leaving, to ensure that Hamas terrorists do not flee with civilians, as they did during the evacuation of Gaza City.
Like Gaza City, Rafah is a densely populated urban area, and the military will aim at dismantling Hamas’s infrastructure while seeking to avoid civilian casualties to the extent possible, with Hamas, as usual, entrenching itself within the population to use it as human shields.
The IDF is highly familiar by now in dealing with tunnels and overground terror facilities set up in civilian areas.
As part of its commitment to reduce harm to noncombatants—a goal the IDF always tries to meet, and one that the Biden administration continues to publicly pressure Israel on—the military will likely focus on large-scale evacuation of Gazan civilians well before the operation gets underway.
The IDF has marked out two evacuation zones: An expansion of the Al-Al-Mawasi zone along the central-southern Gazan coastline, and Khan Yunis.
Two divisions getting ready to attack
The 98th Paratroopers Division, which led the four-month operation in Khan Yunis, and the 162nd Armored Division, which spent six months fighting in central Gaza and setting up the Netzarim Corridor separating northern and southern Gaza, are expected to lead this operation.
Situational assessments, enhancing readiness in all areas, and commanders’ discussions: The 98th Division and the 162nd Division are preparing for continued combat in the Gaza Strip.
On Tuesday, the military announced that these two divisions, both of which are currently out of Gaza, have been enhancing readiness and holding assessments, as well as holding sessions to draw conclusions from combat against Hamas thus far.
The two divisions reviewed combat procedures and plans for continued combat in the Gaza Strip, according to the IDF, while the headquarters of the divisions and of the brigades that operate within them, as well as reservist forces, held professional learning days at all operational levels to prepare for the continuation of their missions.
“The commanders of the divisions have completed the approval of plans for upcoming missions and are now continuing to enhance readiness in all areas and in training,” the IDF stated on Tuesday.
The IDF must draw up these plans while knowing that the fate of the hostages will be far from known under such a scenario, much like when a counterterror unit bursts into a home where hostages are being held.
The IDF cannot plan for every scenario but will need to take into account developments such as threats to the hostages made by Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar, who is believed to be hiding in the tunnels of Rafah, or new attempts by Sinwar to stop the momentum of the IDF by making new overtures regarding a deal.
Assuming that the IDF may know the location of some of the hostages, the need to prevent strikes in those locations will be paramount, while the intelligence community will likely be monitoring events to see if new rescue operations become realistic during the operation.
On Feb. 12, the IDF rescued two Israeli hostages from their captivity in a Rafah apartment building.
The Rafah operation is expected to involve significant air and artillery strikes and tank movements.
In the rest of Gaza, the IDF is conducting targeted raids in the center and north of the Strip; any hostage deal that would freeze the military’s activities would see Hamas able to rebuild its forces.
Regardless of whether the operation goes ahead soon or further down the road due to a deal, Israel will need to be ready for the possibility that Hezbollah, which has already forced the military to fight on two fronts for the past six months, will escalate its attacks in the north to try and force Israel to divert military resources away from Gaza.
The Iranian-led terror axis does not want to see Israel destroy the remnants of the Hamas terror army, one of its most prized assets in the region, and could be willing to take new risks to try to save the Iranian-backed jihadist force in the Strip.
The post IDF Plans for Rafah Op Draw on Extensive Israeli Experience first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel Pushes Into New Parts of Northern Gaza, Recovers Another Slain Hostage
Smoke rises following Israeli strikes, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Jabalia refugee camp northern Gaza Strip, May 13, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa/File Photo
Israeli troops and tanks pushed on Saturday into parts of a congested northern Gaza Strip district that they had previously skirted in the more than seven-month-old war.
Israel’s forces also took over some ground in Rafah, a southern city next to the Egyptian border that is packed with displaced people and where the launch this month of a long-threatened incursion to crush hold-outs of Palestinian Islamist terror group Hamas has alarmed Cairo and Washington.
In what Israeli media said was the result of intelligence gleaned during the latest incursions, the military announced the recovery of the body of a man who was among more than 250 hostages seized by Hamas in a cross-border rampage on Oct. 7 that triggered the war.
Ron Binyamin’s remains were located along with those of three other slain hostages whose repatriation was announced on Friday, the military said without providing further details.
There was no immediate comment from Hamas.
Israel has conducted renewed military sweeps this month of parts of northern Gaza where it had declared the end of major operations in January. At the time, it also predicted its forces would return to prevent a regrouping by the Palestinian Islamist group that rules Gaza.
One site has been Jabalia, the largest of Gaza Strip’s eight historic refugee camps. On Saturday, troops and tanks edged into streets so far spared the ground offensive, residents said.
“Today is the most difficult in terms of the occupation bombardment, air strikes and tank shelling have going on almost non-stop,” said one resident in Jabalia, Ibrahim Khaled, via a chat app.
“We know of dozens of people, martyrs (killed) and wounded, but no ambulance vehicle can get into the area,” he told Reuters.
The Israeli military said its forces have continued to operate in areas across the Gaza Strip including Jabalia and Rafah, carrying out what it called “precise operations against terrorists and infrastructure.”
“The IAF (air force) continues to operate in the Gaza Strip, and struck over 70 terror targets during the past day, including weapons storage facilities, military infrastructure sites, terrorists who posed a threat to IDF troops, and military compounds,” the military said in a statement.
RISING DEATH TOLL
Armed wings of Hamas, the Islamic Jihad, and Fatah said fighters attacked Israeli forces in Jabalia and Rafah with anti-tank rockets, mortar bombs, and explosive devices already planted in some of the roads, killing and wounding many soldiers.
Israel’s military said 281 soldiers have been killed in fighting since the first ground incursions in Gaza on Oct 20.
In the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 1,200 people were killed. About 125 people are still being held in Gaza.
In Rafah, where Israeli tanks thrust into some of the eastern suburbs and clashed with Palestinian fighters there, residents said Israeli bombing from the air and ground persisted all night.
Israel says it must capture Rafah to destroy Hamas and ensure the country’s security.
The post Israel Pushes Into New Parts of Northern Gaza, Recovers Another Slain Hostage first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Houthis Attack Another Oil Tanker in Red Sea
Illustrative. Houthi military helicopter flies over the Galaxy Leader cargo ship in the Red Sea in this photo released Nov. 20, 2023. Photo: Houthi Military Media/Handout via REUTERS
i24 News – British naval security firm Ambrey said on Saturday it had received information that a Panama-flagged crude oil tanker was attacked in the Red Sea off Yemen’s Mokha.
Ambrey said a radio communication indicated the vessel was hit by a missile and that there was a fire onboard. It did not provide details of the communication.
Yemen’s Houthi jihadists, who controls the most populous parts of Yemen and are aligned with Iran, has staged attacks on ships in the waters off the country for months in solidarity with the Palestinians.
Months of Houthi attacks in the Red Sea have disrupted global shipping, forcing firms to re-route to longer and more expensive journeys around Southern Africa, and stoking fears that the Israel-Hamas war could spread to destabilize the wider Middle East.
The post Houthis Attack Another Oil Tanker in Red Sea first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iran Further Ramps Up Executions, Hanging At Least 7
Preparations for a public hanging in Iran. Photo: Wiki Commons.
i24 News – At least seven people, including two women, were hanged in Iran on Saturday as the Islamic Republic has further intensified its use of capital punishment, a monitor said.
The Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) said it has tallied at least 223 executions this year, with at least 50 so far in May alone. A new surge began following the end of the Persian New Year and Ramadan holidays in April, with 115 people including six women hanged since then.
Second only to China in the overall number of executions, Iran carries out more recorded executions of women than any other country.
Iran last year carried out more hangings than in any year since 2015, according to human right monitors, which accuse the mullah regime of using capital punishment as a means to instill fear in the wake of protests that erupted in autumn 2022.
Rights group say the death penalty is dispassionately used against Iran’s ethnic and religious minorities, such as Kurds, Turks, Arabs and Balochis.
Iran has been roiled by occasional bursts of unrest since the death of Mahsa Amini in September 16, 2022. The 22-year-old Iranian-Kurdish woman fell into a coma and died three days later following her arrest by the morality police for allegedly violating the Islamic dress code.
The incident unleashed years of pent-up anger over issues from tightening social and political controls to economic hardships, triggering the clerical establishment’s worst legitimacy crisis in decades.
The post Iran Further Ramps Up Executions, Hanging At Least 7 first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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