Netanyahu Yields to American Pressure, Will Let 200 Hamas Fighters Go Free

Netanyahu Yields to American Pressure, Will Let 200 Hamas Fighters Go Free

Hugh Fitzgerald

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has yielded to American pressure. He has agreed to let the 200 Hamas fighters still in tunnels under Rafah, on the east side of the Yellow Line that demarcates where the IDF and Hamas forces in Gaza are in control, to go free. It’s a terrible concession on the part of the Israelis, who had earlier been determined to wipe out all the Hamas fighters who had been in tunnels to the east of the Yellow Line, terrorists who now will be allowed not just to escape being killed by the IDF, that had them trapped in those tunnels, but Israel has apparently agreed as well that it will not even hold them as prisoners.

They will be free to leave the part of Gaza that the IDF holds and move to the part that Hamas holds, from where they, or at least their leaders, will then be deported to a country wiling to take them. So far, no country has offered to do so. Will they then be allowed to remain in Gaza, free to join other Hamas members in controlling their half of the Strip by fighting the clans, such as the Doghmush family, or the militia serving under Yasser Abu Shabab, that oppose Hamas’ rule? How do the Americans expect to force those 200 fighters, once freed, not to return to their jihad terrorist ways?

The pressures that the Americans brought to bear upon the Israelis have not been made public, but no doubt involve continued diplomatic support at the UN, including vetoes at the Security Council of anti-Israel resolutions, a slowing down of weapons deliveries that Israel needs to replace all the arms and ammunition it has used up since October 7, 2023, and even, possibly, a threat not to join Israel in a second attack on the nuclear facilities, including the new site at Pickaxe Mountain, that Iran has been frenetically building.

It remains unclear why Washington thinks it needs to curry favor with Hamas by rescuing the 200 Hamas fighters in those tunnels under Rafah from the IDF. Does the Trump administration really think that such a concession will persuade Hamas to do what has repeatedly said it will not do — that is, disarm entirely?