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

@Puppycat23 the question is why didnt they start in Rafah instead if the north. I have heard no good reasons for that.

@trollslayer Probably because there were Hamas strongholds in other parts of Gaza that they had to tackle first before going to Rafah which is apparently is the last stronghold.

@Puppycat23 that makes no sense strategically. Why would you need to tackle those areas first, meanwhile leaving hamas a border where they could potentially smuggle in weapons and smuggle out leaders? Does Israel trust Egypt that much?

@trollslayer



Well you asked.

@Puppycat23 your logic makes sense. Except that Hamas cannot be eliminated completely. And this is something Israel also realises.
The way America could not cleanse Afganistan of Taliban.

@trollslayer The strategy might have been to push Palestinians out into Egypt. At least as many as they can. And reduce the population to facilitate future settlement.

@WandererTony That would be a good plan.

@Puppycat23 Ramadan would be the ideal time to attack,i doubt Israel would care about that,not being Islamic of course.why would they care?