Asked why he previously claimed Rafah was ‘last Hamas stronghold,’ PM insists he only referred to battalions

In the i24 interview, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was pressed on why he’s framing Gaza City as Hamas’s “last true fortress” when he used the same rhetoric to describe Rafah before Israel launched a major offensive in the southern Gaza town last spring.

The premier claims that he was referring to the last organized Hamas battalions that were then located in Rafah.

In fact, he told CBS in February 2024, “We’ve already destroyed 18 of the 24 Hamas terrorist battalions. Four of [the remaining ones] are concentrated in the Rafah. We can’t leave the last Hamas stronghold without taking care of it.”

Netanyahu tells i24that Hamas transitioned to “guerrilla warfare,” after which Gaza City became the terror group’s final stronghold. He says the IDF will evacuate the civilian population before going in and clearing Gaza City. The IDF will then proceed into the refugee camps in central Gaza and the Mawasi area, which he characterized as a smaller Hamas stronghold that will be easier to dismantle once the Gaza City stronghold is defeated.

Critics have warned that Netanyahu is repeating the same strategy in Gaza City that the IDF used in Rafah, which allows many of Hamas’s operatives to evacuate with the civilian population and to simply move the “stronghold” to other locations.