Free Republic

The United Nations confirmed Saturday that 800,000 Palestinians have left the town of Rafah, in southern Gaza, as Israel begins its attack on Hamas battalions there. Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of the controversial United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), announced the number of evacuees — and warned of the risks they face. The number of evacuees far exceeds the estimates that were discussed in advance of the Israeli operation, which began on May 6, amid U.S. opposition. The Biden administration warned that an attack on Rafah could cause civilian casualties there.

The Israeli Air Force struck more than 70 targets across the Gaza Strip in the past day, the military says, as ground forces operate in Rafah, Jabaliya, and the Netzarim Corridor. According to the IDF, the targets included weapon depots, infrastructure, and buildings belonging to terror groups, as well as operatives. One of the airstrikes in Rafah hit a senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad operative, who the IDF says was head of logistics for the terror group in the city in southern Gaza. “As part of his role, he was responsible for preparing the enemy for the IDF maneuver in Rafah,”...

Juuuussssttttt spitballin' here, but it certainly seems like we have an answer for Egypt's extraordinary pissiniss about Israel's plans to clear out Rafah.I have to admit, this was the favored line of thinking over the past few weeks as the Biden administration sabotaged every Israeli move, and the Egyptians blustered and threatened. Almost to a one, folks weren't at all fooled. They were asking, "What is Egypt worried the Israelis are going to find?"Well, hiya.Nearly 700 tunnel shafts have been identified in Rafah, with ~50 tunnels crossing into Egypt, revealed @DrGiladNoam at today's sham @CIJ_ICJ hearing.Those tunnels are used to...

South Africa returned to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, Netherlands, this week in an effort to stop Israel’s ongoing military operation in the city of Rafah against the last Hamas battalions in the Gaza Strip. The struggling African nation — which faces elections later this month — took Israel to the ICJ earlier this year, urging the court to declare that Israel was guilty of “genocide” in Gaza, even though Israel has taken pains to avoid civilian casualties, and allows hundreds of trucks laden with humanitarian aid to enter the territory every day. The ICJ ruled...

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has found loaded rocket launchers during its operation in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, now in its second week. Rocket fire from Gaza into Israel, which was nearly constant in the days following the October 7 terror attack, has largely subsided. However, in recent weeks, Hamas terrorists have fired rockets at the Keren Shalom crossing, where humanitarian aid enters Gaza near Rafah, and at the city of Sderot, near northern Gaza.

Rafah isn’t just the last stand for Hamas, but for an entire foreign policy establishment.The desperate effort to keep Israeli soldiers from going into the last Gaza stronghold of the Islamic terrorist organization is about more than the sum of the geopolitical parts.After nation building failed in Afghanistan and Iraq, and everywhere else it’s been tried, the radioactive ‘Palestinian’ nation building experiment from over 30 years ago is its last hope.Long before George W. Bush tackled nation building after 9/11, his father began the era of turning Muslim terrorist groups into countries with the project to give the PLO a...

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) shared drone footage Tuesday of terrorists in a United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) compound in Rafah, near several United Nations (UN) vehicles, including gunfire by the terrorists.Israel's foreign minister, Israel Katz, said that the UN was working with the terrorists, and called on UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini to resign (as Katz has done in the past).The IDF released a statement:During IDF operational activity in eastern Rafah on Saturday, terrorists were identified in UNRWA's central logistics compound alongside UN vehicles.In the footage, a number of terrorists and gunfire can be seen near UN vehicles...

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) continued to attack Hamas terrorists in Rafah and throughout Gaza on Monday, which was Israel’s independence day, despite continued international criticism and caution from the White House. In a statement, the IDF said: IDF troops continue their operations against terror targets in the area of eastern Rafah and on the Gazan side of the Rafah crossing. IDF troops eliminated several armed terrorist cells in close-quarters encounters on the Gazan side of the Rafah crossing. In eastern Rafah, IDF troops eliminated a number of terrorists and located weapons. An IAF aircraft struck a terrorist cell that...

A UK ban on selling arms to Israel would only strengthen Hamas, the foreign secretary has told the BBC. Lord Cameron said while he would not support a major ground offensive in the Gazan city of Rafah, the UK would not copy US plans to stop some arms sales.

Former President Donald Trump criticized President Joe Biden for setting “the world on fire” and referred to comments made earlier this week that he would withhold weapons and artillery from Israel. During a rally at Wildwood, New Jersey, on Saturday, Trump referred to comments Biden made during a CNN interview in which he said he would withhold weapons from Israel if it invaded Rafah, Hamas’s last stronghold. Biden’s comments came days after Hamas had fired a barrage of rockets from Rafah toward the Kerem Shalom border crossing, which is used as the main entry point for humanitarian aid entering the...

We’re nowhere near slam-dunk territory on this, but it’s something to watch. For Democrats, it could be an area that could produce another episode of politically induced heartburn. Jonah Goldberg is a notable anti-Trump commentator. He has been a vocal critic of the former president, though he’s returned to his classic roots amid the chaos on our college campuses. Still, while Biden has been disappointing for some Republicans who might have crossed party lines in 2020, Goldberg’s tweet about the rumblings he’s heard from within the Never Trump wing is interesting: Fwiw. I’ve heard from a LOT of reliably anti-Trump...

Biden administration officials are said to be offering Israel exact locations of Hamas leaders in a bid to stop the IDF invading the Gazan city of Rafah. The president has reportedly offered highly-classified information that also includes the locations of Hamas' secret tunnels to try and stave-off what he fears could be a humanitarian catastrophe. The detailed and sensitive talks serve to illustrate the stakes facing Israel and the U.S. Rafah is the last city in Gaza that has not been bombed by Israel. According to the Washington Post, the U.S. is also proposing to assist in the construction of...

CLAIM: President Ronald Reagan, like President Joe Biden, withheld arms from Israel to influence its military policy. VERDICT: MISLEADING. Reagan acted within the law, and in very different circumstances, in withholding arms. The New York Times‘ Peter Baker — winner of the Pulitzer Prize for his newspaper’s bogus reporting on “Russia collusion” — wrote Friday that President Reagan, too, withheld weapons from Israel over concerns about their use. Baker’s aim in the article appears to be to rescue Biden from some of the criticism he has faced since he confirmed earlier this week that the administration was withholding bombs and...

Israel’s security cabinet voted Friday to expand the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) operation in Rafah, albeit on a limited scale, and to continue talks with mediators in Egypt in the hope of reaching a hostage release deal with Hamas. The vote was interpreted as a rebuke of the Biden administration, in the wake of this week’s admission by the president that the U.S. is withholding bombs and artillery from Israel in protest of its decision to attack Hamas in Rafah. The security cabinet is one level above the war cabinet, which deals with more immediate military decisions.

The White House cleaned up President Joe Biden's threat to stop sending weapons to Israel, saying the shipments are continuing. 'Everybody keeps talking about pausing weapons shipments. Weapons shipments are still going to Israel. And they're still getting the vast, vast majority of everything that they need to defend themselves,' National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters on Thursday. Biden told CNN on Wednesday that he would pause more arms shipments to Israel if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launches a full-scale invasion of Rafah.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a video message on Thursday vowing that Israel "will stand alone" to defeat Hamas, if necessary, after President Biden threatened to withhold weapon shipments to the Jewish State should Netanyahu proceed with an invasion of Rafah. Netanyahu echoed the 1948 Israeli war of independence in his remarks, saying that despite a weapons embargo on Israel, Israelis had fought and defeated the Arab nations who attacked the nascent Jewish state, thanks to their bravery and unity. "Today, we are much stronger," the prime minister said. "We are determined, and we are united in order to...

The Biden administration tried to argue Thursday that if Israel launched an ambitious attack on Hamas in Rafah, that would strengthen Hamas, improve Hamas’s leverage in hostage negotiations, and build popular support for Hamas. Israel launched a limited operation in Rafah this week, near the Egyptian border, as it prepares to take on the final four Hamas battalions in a town that is viewed as the last stronghold of the terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said that an Israeli military campaign in Rafah would “actually weaken … Israel’s security.” He also said that the...

President Biden tells CNN that the US will stop providing Israel with artillery shells, bombs for fighter jets and other offensive weapons if it invades Rafah

During a portion of an interview with CNN set to air on Wednesday’s broadcast of “OutFront” that was aired on Wednesday’s broadcast of “The Situation Room,” President Joe Biden stated that if Israel goes into population centers in Rafah, “I’m not going to supply them the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities, to deal with that problem.” And that while Israel will still get supplies for the Iron Dome and to give them the “ability to respond to attacks” he has “made it clear to Bibi and the War Cabinet, they’re...

The US last week paused a bomb shipment for Israel over concerns it was going ahead with a major ground operation in Rafah, southern Gaza, a senior administration official says. The shipment consisted of 1,800 2,000lb (907kg) bombs and 1,700 500lb bombs, the official told CBS News, the BBC's media partner in the US. Israel has not "fully addressed" US concerns over humanitarian needs of civilians in Rafah, the official says. Israel made no immediate comment. Overnight, there were further Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip, hours after Israeli forces backed by tanks took control of the key Rafah...