Israel: Gaza is ‘one of the most difficult battlefields in the world’

Israeli army chief military spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, described Gaza as “one of the most difficult battlefields in the world,” noting that the military operation in Rafah “does not guarantee the cessation of Palestinian attacks.”

Speaking at a Tel Aviv conference hosted by the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, Hagari explained that “the most important challenge facing the army is the Israeli public’s confidence,” adding that “what happened on October 7 forces us to be more positioned and know how to accept criticism, and after failure we took responsibility.”

“The one who is leading the war is the Chief of Staff, who has taken responsibility, and we also understand the implications of this responsibility,” he said.

“We planned a war that would last for about a year. Gaza is perhaps one of the most difficult arenas in the world in terms of fighting, intensity, and the tunnels that Hamas had dug underground,” he continued.

According to Israeli army data, 614 Israeli officers and soldiers have been killed, and more than 3,362 have been injured, since 7 October 2023.

Regarding the delay in the Rafah operation, Hagari said it had not begun months ago because the “operational conditions” were not in place due to the multitudes of Gazans who have sought refuge in the city and its surroundings.

Rafah, he said, “is not as important as Khan Yunis and northern Gaza,” referring to other areas of the Gaza Strip that the army has already razed to the ground.

READ: Battles rage around Rafah after US halts some weapons to Israel

“We will deal with Rafah in a way that is right for us,” Hagari said, warning that “even after we deal with Rafah ….. Hamas will move north and try to regroup, even in the coming days. Wherever Hamas returns to, both in the north and in the centre of the Strip, we will return to action.”

On Tuesday, the Israeli occupation army reoccupied the Rafah land crossing and once again forcibly displaced Palestinians in the eastern neighbourhoods of Rafah city ahead of a ground invasion.

Asked about the unprecedented holdup of an arms shipment by the US administration over a potential major Israeli operation in Rafah, Hagari said allies resolve any disagreements “behind closed doors” and described coordination between Israel and the United States as reaching “a scope without precedent, I think, in Israel’s history.”

On Tuesday, the Biden administration confirmed reports that it had recently stopped a large shipment of 2,000- and 500-pound bombs that it feared Israel might use in a looming major ground operation in the densely populated southern Gaza city of Rafah.

With American support, Israel continues to wage its genocidal war on Gaza that has killed and injured more than 113,000 Palestinians, most of them children and women. Some 10,000 are also missing amid massive destruction and famine.