Israel s Message in Gaza to Iran and Hezbollah – WSJ

Israel showed Hamas that after the Oct. 7 massacre, it has the power and the will to rout the terror group from even sensitive civilian locations. For years Israel feared using its military advantage against weaker adversaries. Why? Because of the damage rockets could do to the Jewish state s home front, the cost in Israeli soldier casualties and worries about global legitimacy. With tools such as the Iron Dome missile defense system, Jerusalem avoided playing offense. Now Israel has proved at least to anyone who sees Hamas s stockpiles of guns, grenades, drones and other materiel found at Al-Shifa that it was right all along about the terror group s abuse of civilian locations.

The U.S. government took Israel s side when it took over the hospital something Jerusalem wouldn t take for granted. This will have implications for any effort by the International Criminal Court to go after the IDF for alleged war crimes.

What Israeli forces didn t do at Al-Shifa was defeat Hamas completely. Rather, the IDF appears to have let Hamas, including about 200 fighters, escape to southern Gaza. This may have been either to avoid a bloodbath inside the hospital or preserve the possibility of what turned out to be a weeklong cease-fire in which dozens of Israeli hostages were returned. Since the Dec. 4 invasion of Khan Younis, the IDF has been confronting Hamas in a more definitive fashion, with most of the terror group s fighters and leaders fleeing south.

via www.wsj.com

Yonah Jeremy Bob