Jerusalem — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was right to ignore dire warnings from President Biden and Vice President Harris not to seize the last major Hamas terrorist stronghold in Rafah, military and Middle East experts say. This has been proven.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the country's Shin Bet intelligence agency announced on Wednesday that “soldiers from the Southern Army eliminated Yahya Sinwar, leader of the Hamas terrorist organization, in an operation in the southern Gaza Strip.”
Biden and Harris blessed the death of Israel Earlier this year, both men warned Israel about entering Rafah, where Sinwar met his final moments, according to the Hamas terror mastermind.
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IDF forces operating in the city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip. (IDF Press Secretary's Office)
Sinwar oversaw the massacre of approximately 1,200 people, including more than 40 American citizens, on October 7, 2023.
In March, Harris refused to rule out “consequences” if Israel went ahead with its invasion of Rafah in the Gaza Strip.
“It has been clear to me in many conversations and on every level that a major military operation in Rafah would be a huge mistake,” Harris told ABC News at the time. Those people please go. ”
Also in March, Biden's chief of staff Jake Sullivan echoed Harris' warning.
“Our position is that Hamas should not be given a safe haven in Rafah or anywhere else,” Sullivan said at a White House press briefing. “However, a large-scale ground operation would be a mistake. It would lead to further deaths of innocent civilians, exacerbate an already dire humanitarian crisis, deepen anarchy in Gaza, and further isolate Israel internationally.” I will.”
President Biden meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on July 25, 2024. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
In May, Biden threatened Israel, going so far as to say he would not provide weapons if the Jewish state entered Rafah. “If they go into Rafah, I'm not going to provide them with the weapons that have historically been used to deal with Rafah, deal with the city, deal with that problem,” Biden told CNN. “It will be,” he said.
Amit Segal, chief political analyst for Israel's Channel 12, told Fox News Digital: “The removal of Sinwar means that the continuation of the war is not a whim, and that the advance into Rafah is not revenge, but a surrender to Hamas to settle the issue. This proves that he refused to do so.” The Northern Front was not a hasty decision.
“There is a strategy, and that is to ensure that the entire Middle East sees before its eyes what happens to those who attack Israel.”
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Late Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar (center) during a memorial service for members killed in an Israeli airstrike at Yarmouk Stadium in Gaza City, Gaza, May 24, 2021. (Laurent van der Stockt/Getty Images)
New information regarding the elimination of Sinwar Friday has been revealed. “Sinwar's main goal was to wipe Israel off the map. This operational achievement is part of a year-long operation in Gaza,” an IDF spokesperson said.
He said Shinwar was in “the same tunnel where six hostages were executed” in August.
One of the six hostages killed was Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg Pollin.
“We understand that Shinwar was in the area. A few hundred meters from that tunnel is where he was removed,” the IDF spokesperson said, adding, “There are no indications that there are senior Hamas leaders in the Rafah area. There is,” he added.
The IDF spokesperson added that there are 14,000 Hamas booby-trapped buildings in the Rafah region.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu points to a map of the Gaza Strip during a press conference at the Government Press Office in Jerusalem, September 4, 2024. (Abil Sultan/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
“If Prime Minister Netanyahu had listened to Biden and Harris and not joined Rafah, we may never have reached Shinwar. The American and Israeli public overwhelmingly supported us joining Rafah. “We want Hamas to go down in history. Now is the time to end Hamas and bring the hostages home,” said Israeli Lieutenant Colonel Yoni Chetboun, a decorated special forces operator and former deputy speaker of parliament. told Fox News Digital.
State Department says Shinwar's removal is 'important and provides an opportunity for a ceasefire'
Harris' misjudgment regarding the ground war in Gaza drew heavy criticism and ridicule from foreign policy experts on social media. Caroline Glick, American-Israeli Middle East expert I wrote to X, “Sinwar was killed in Rafah, a mile from the Egyptian border. Kamala threatened Israel with sanctions if we entered. Oh, she looked at the map.”
A campaign by the U.S. government and the European Union to cooperate with Israel's push to eliminate the Iranian regime-backed terrorist movements Hamas and Hezbollah does not appear to have affected Netanyahu's war plans so far.
Josep Borrell, the European Union's leftist foreign policy chief who suggested in February that the United States cut military aid to Israel, said at the time that there was no military solution to defeating Hamas.
Demonstrators in Tel Aviv, Israel, September 1, 2024, protest against the government and show support for the hostages kidnapped in the deadly October 7 attack as the conflict between Israel and Hamas continues in the Gaza Strip. people rally outside the Ministry of Defense. (Reuters/Florion Goga)
Max Abrams, a leading counterterrorism expert and tenured professor of political science at Northeastern University, told Fox News Digital that “Biden and Harris are basing their advice on Netanyahu on American politics.'' “The White House is keenly aware of the Democratic Party's policies.” The White House is therefore trying to force Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to withdraw Israeli forces from Gaza before fully addressing the Hamas threat, particularly Operation Rafah.
“If Prime Minister Netanyahu had heeded that advice, Shinwar would have survived. Israel would be safer ignoring this White House. This is an important lesson for Prime Minister Netanyahu as he considers military options against Iran.” is.”
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After receiving the news of Shinwar's death, a newspaper reporter said, State Department press conference On Thursday, Press Secretary Matthew Miller asked whether the Biden administration's policy toward the Israeli invasion of Rafah was preemptive in hindsight.
“No, we have always made it clear that we support Israel in conducting counterterrorism operations targeting Hamas leaders and Hamas militants,” Miller said in his response. , we've made it clear that not only do we support it, but we too.'' We provided active intelligence support to these operations, and I think we'll leave it at that. ”
Fox News Digital asked President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris whether their warning to Prime Minister Netanyahu about Rafah was a mistake, but they did not respond.
Fox News Digital's Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.
