What Israel’s Successful Raid in Rafah Taught Us All

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After facing months of massive international pressure to not launch a ground offensive in Rafah, Israel decided to go it alone. On May 6th, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched a limited raid on eastern Rafah, an operation that has since expanded to additional parts of the southern Gaza Strip. Was it worth it?I argue that the ground offensive in Rafah is one of Israel’s greatest diplomatic and military success in the war, and much of the success can be attributed to the effective way in which the IDF has managed the offensive thus far. Let’s look back on the past two and a half weeks and see what we have learned.

Slow and Steady

Much of the international pressure on Israel to cancel the ground offensive came from a fear of the humanitarian consequences. With more than half of the Gaza Strip’s population crowded into Rafah, which had served as something of a safe haven from the fighting during the war, the international community came to the collective opinion that an invasion of Rafah would be an inevitable disaster. According to international “experts”, civilians would not have enough time to evacuate to other parts of the Strip, and those who do move would not have adequate access to humanitarian aid. A scary picture of a belligerent IDF invading Gaza en masse and causing a massive number of…