Israel Says It Has Enough Weapons to Destroy Hamas in Rafah

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Thursday that it had enough weapons to achieve its goal of destroying Hamas in Rafah, despite a threat by U.S. President Joe Biden to withhold arms if Israel goes ahead with its Rafah operation.

The Times of Israel reported:

“The IDF has armaments for the missions it is planning, including missions in Rafah. We have what we need,” IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said, responding to a question at a press conference.

While some commentators have agreed the military likely has munitions needed for a Rafah offensive, it may be hard-pressed to face Hezbollah if the conflict in the north develops into all-out war and Washington continues to withhold munitions.

Hagari added in a briefing:

In the southern Gaza Strip, in the eastern Rafah area, forces of the 162nd Division are continuing to operate against terror targets and the smuggling of weapons in the area of eastern Rafah. This activity supports the intelligence we had — Hamas used the area of the Rafah Crossing for terrorism. We found several terrorist tunnel shafts in the area, which we are currently investigating and scanning, and so far, our forces have eliminated approximately 50 terrorists in this area during encounters and air strikes, and also during scans in the area. Currently, the divisional forces are continuing to operate against terror targets in the area.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement reminding Israelis that they had won their War of Independence in 1948 with few weapons (translation via Government Press Office):

We are on the eve of Independence Day. In the War of Independence 76 years ago, we were the few against the many. We did not have weapons. There was an arms embargo on Israel, but with great strength of spirit, heroism and unity among us – we were victorious.

Today we are much stronger. We are determined and we are united in order to defeat our enemies and those who want to destroy us.

If we need to stand alone, we will stand alone.

I have said that if necessary – we will fight with our fingernails.

But we have much more than fingernails and with that same strength of spirit, with G-d’s help, together we will win.

The Rafah operation against Hamas’s last battalions enjoys overwhelming support among the Israeli public, who believe the attack is necessary to defeat Hamas. Israelis also support negotiations to release the hostages..

The Biden White House argued Thursday that attacking Hamas would somehow make it stronger and give it additional leverage in negotiations over the hostages. The White House did not explain how that would work.

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.