by Emanuel Shilo, editor of Besheva, translated by Hillel Fendel.
The IDF's latest successes – both in battle and in eliminating Hamas leaders – bring us closer to breaking the fighting spirit of both Hamas and the Gazan populace. Now is not the time to stop!
The elimination two Sabbaths ago of arch-terrorist and Hamas mastermind Muhammed Deif two weeks ago – no proof that he is alive has been forthcoming since then – is of truly critical strategic importance in the ongoing war in Gaza. The Sabbath-observant public in Israel was happy to once again be the last to hear about this great success, just as it was regarding the IDF's Sabbath rescue of four hostages several weeks ago. Keep the good news coming, no matter when we hear about them!
The strike in Khan Yunis in which, with near certainty, Deif was killed, also did away with one of his associates and a mastermind of the October 7th attacks, Khan Yunis Brigade commander Rafa’a Salameh. The bombing attack is likely to become the decisive success of the current war – on condition that the Government of Israel and the IDF do not fall into the trap of giving away our military achievements of the past months, and those on the way, in exchange for a pot of porridge in the form of a surrender agreement with Hamas. The deal currently under consideration would return only some of the hostages, and would require at least six weeks of ceasefire during which Hamas will be able to regroup, regain control, and prepare for the next round of war.
The assassination of Deif was enabled because the IDF took control of the Philadelphi Route in Rafah, on the Gaza-Egypt border. This move was a true game-changer, as is evident by the measure of flexibility that Hamas has actually been showing of late in the negotiations with Israel. It is as clear as day that Sinwar and his men are suffering from a shortage of armaments, given Israel's destruction of many – but not all – arms tunnels from Egypt under Rafah to Gaza. This marks the beginning of the end for Hamas, with its paucity of production means and trade connections. What Hamas needs now is nothing other than a deal with Israel that will halt the fighting; time is not working in Sinwar's favor.
Proof that the murderous Hamas terrorist organization is very short on armaments lies in the fact that it has stopped firing long-range missiles into central Israel. It used to be, during the rounds of fighting that broke out every few years between Hamas and Israel, that Hamas would let loose with large numbers of such rockets towards Ashkelon and elsewhere – but recently, there have been little if any such attacks. In addition, Kassam and other projectiles are much less frequent than they used to be. In many cases, the IDF, which is deployed widely in and around the Gaza Strip, succeeds in identifying and eliminating the terrorists and their rocket launchers within minutes of their rocket launches.
As long as the IDF continues to hold the Philadelphi Route and engage in destroying the remaining tunnels under it, the total depletion of Hamas weaponry is just a matter of time. With persistence and patience, we can make sure to clean out Gaza of all weapons and explosive materials. We will discover and collapse more and more tunnels, and we will reach every weapons manufacturing lab. Gone will be the days when acquiring an RPG launcher in Gaza was as easy as buying a broom.
It won't happen in a week or a month, and it might even be years – but with much firmness and patience, and Divine help and inspiration, it is within our ability to get the job done, as long as we don't fill ourselves with weakness and cowardice.
One of the more interesting reports that emerged after the Khan Yunis strike was that of former senior Israeli journalist Yoni Ben-Menachem, a researcher for the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. He wrote that the prize offered by Israel of $100,000 for information about Muhammed Deif was shared by two Gazan residents, who supplied information about his whereabouts.
This must be taken in the context of the difficulties that the ongoing war is having on the average Gaza resident. Typical Gazans who are sick of the war, and of the Hamas leadership that caused and is causing it, can very likely be induced to cooperate with Israel, for a monetary price of course. This could then lead to the finding and rescue of additional hostages, and even the locating and targeting of the few remaining senior Hamas leaders, such as Yichye Sinwar.
It's not only money that interests the Gazans. The action that took out Deif and Salameh also killed dozens of local residents, demonstrating the dangers inherent in living near the terrorist leaders, and even in the vicinity of Israeli hostages. As time goes on, more and more Gazans will be interested in helping Israel defeat Hamas and end the war. All that is needed is to continue to apply military and other pressure upon Sinwar and Hamas.
Thus, we can also expect, if we are consistent, to rescue more hostages, either militarily or via hostage-holders who come forward to IDF representatives on their own (for a hefty sum of money). But even if not, we can expect that Sinwar will be increasingly willing to relax his conditions for a deal as he increasingly realizes that his end is otherwise near. It is likely that he will be happy to settle for his own safe passage out of Gaza, together with his close family and aides, in exchange for the release of the remaining hostages.
But in order for all this to happen, Israel must exhibit cohesiveness, stability, and determination. When the enemy sees us bickering among ourselves, and when we give the sense that the government is about to fall, and when we act as if Israel is on its way to giving up on all the war objectives it set for itself in the days after Simchat Torah – and all this simply for only some of the hostages – then we prop up the enemy with our own hands, and fan anew the flames of their flickering battle spirit.
"Yes to victory, no to a cave-in agreement!" This must be the message that the Prime Minister and all our politicians must receive from the public. And this is also the demand that IDF leaders must hear from the fighters and officers in the field. Most unfortunately, the senior security echelons - whose leaders bear the primary responsibility (aside from Hamas) for the travesty of Oct. 7 - are still entrapped in the "conceptions" that led to it in the first place. They are willing to give up a victory, and for what? For a hostage deal of doubtful value. Their pangs of conscience for the suffering caused to the hostages and their families because of their terrible mistakes are pushing them to try to find a solution for today's problems without concern for the dire security situation in which the entire State of Israel will find itself a short time afterwards. As the Torah tells us, those who are too scared to fight a war like they should – let them turn back and go home.