If attacking Rafah is so important to Israel's war effort, why did they wait till now to do it?

If their goal is to eliminate Hamas, it doesn't make strategic sense for them to attack Rafah now. It would have made more sense to attack in the couth first, because that would have cut any potential supplies smuggled from Egypt, and reduced escape possibilities for Hamas leaders, and would have made it more difficult to move hostages around.

That makes me think eliminating Hamas and rescuing Hostages are not the only goals here.

My hunch is that by attacking the north first, they hoped many Palestinians would flee to Egypt, and the hope wasn't to "keep them out of harm's way", it was the hope that they would permanently leave. That seems to be a general strategy of Israel since the beginning to hope that Palestinians would simply go elsewhere if the fighting got too rough or their land was encroached upon.

Logic points towards the unstated goal of Israel is to re-settle Gaza. Those in charge now seem to still hold anger over pulling Israeli settlements back in 2005, and to think those leaders are now "over it" is a foolish assumption. The only thing stopping them is western pressure, from the United States, UK and others that currently support them.

They had to wait for all the Gazans to move there.

The goal is a greater Israel. Ethnic cleansing leading to Palestinians becoming a minority is the current objective. This is not a reaction to October 7. This is prior plan, which is enabled by the Hamas blunder of October 7. Netanyahu had leaked his dream in Sept at UN. Gaza is nothing but a Prison camp. Through multiple operations over the years the Palestinian has been pushed into Gaza and restricted in the confines. October 7 was not war. It was a jailbreak. And a welcome excuse for Israel to start the next stage of its operation.

Israel Practises apartheid. And is committing holocaust. Western Europe and America support this due to their larger interests. Sadly, Germany is supporting the holocaust in spite of its past. Thankfully, South Africa has opposed the apartheid of Israel due to its conscience. America continues to support Israels excesses due to the Israel lobby operating in US. No American politician either ruling or opposition can think of opposing this lobby. They will run dry of political funding.

But it is now proven, that Israel stands isolated from the rest of the world due to its excesses committed since October 7. Even big brother will find it difficult to support any further. The question only is how long before America and it’s NATO puppets fund it embarrassing to face their moral conscience

Me too. The other fishy thing is that I can read 20 years of articles about Gaza tunnels, yet Israel seems to think we should be “shocked” when they “discover” another one.

Because it's plain old ethnic cleansing

Israel was pressured to wait due to Ramadan and other factors. And the IDF wasn’t going into Rafah until all civilians from that area evacuated from the area to another part of Gaza.

Israel will continue with the removal war until the USA stops them. People have no way to stop such killers.

It's not the first time though.