Israeli government spokesman David Mencer said Monday that Israel’s warning to residents of Rafah to evacuate was not a bluff and marked the beginning of a long-promised operation by the Israel Defense Force (IDF) to win the war.
Asked at a press briefing by Breitbart News whether Monday’s warning — including flyers, SMS messages, telephone calls, and Arabic broadcasts — was a tactic to encourage Hamas to accept a hostage deal currently on the table, Israeli government spokesman David Mencer suggested that the warnings were exactly what they appeared to be.
“The purpose of the operation in Rafah is to do exactly what the IDF has stated,” Mencer said. “Rafah contains the last four battalions of Hamas. We cannot leave them in power: it’s been stated quite clearly that if we do that they will simply retake Gaza. And consequently, they will attack us again, because that’s precisely what they have said.”
He said that Israel would “liberate Gaza from Hamas.”
The White House has repeatedly urged Israel to avoid an attack on Hamas, but Israel appears determined to go ahead, whether the Biden administration supports it or not.
Mencer noted that the warnings to residents of Rafah, in a strategic location on the Egyptian border, “call on residents of certain specific neighborhoods to relocate … because will be operating against the terrorist organizations in these areas.” He added that the IDF had warned that “Gaza City [in northern Gaza] is still a dangerous active combat zone” and that residents should “avoid returning north of Wadi Gaza.”
He said that in the new, expanded humanitarian zones near Rafah, such as the Al-Mawasi area near the beachfront, “humanitarian aid will continue.” He confirmed reports that Israel had been told to reduce the amount of aid flowing to northern Gaza because there was too much food, and said that markets “both in the north and the south are bustling.”
“The issue has never been about getting aid into Gaza, but about getting aid to the civilians in Gaza before it is stolen, and looted, by Hamas,” Mencer said.
Mercer also noted that Monday marked Israel’s official Holocaust memorial day, “Yom HaShoah Ve-Hagevurah” or “Day of (remembrance of) the Holocaust and the Heroism.”
He noted that Israel was mourning the deaths of four soldiers killed by Hamas on Sunday in a rocket attack on the Keren Shalom border crossing, where humanitarian aid crosses from Israel into Gaza.
Asked whether a Rafah operation meant that negotiations toward a hostage deal were off, Mencer implied that Israel was still open to talks: “We have stated many, many times that the Israeli government is committed to do whatever it is that is needed to get our hostages home.” He said that Hamas had “sabotaged” the most recent deal in a “deliberate” manner.
Hamas refused to agree to a deal unless Israel agreed to end the war permanently. Israel has refused to do that, since it would mean accepting defeat and allowing Hamas to survive and return to power in Gaza.
Mercer put the number of hostages at 132 hostages, adding that “37 of them have unfortunately been killed by Hamas.” Israel’s Army Radio said Sunday that at least 60 Israeli hostages are thought to be alive.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.