Major General (Res.) and Strategic Studies researcher Gershon Hacohen claimed that “we are viewing war incorrectly” concerning Rafah and past incidents involving IDF casualties in the city on Tuesday.
The Second Intifada was marked by increasing attempts by Palestinian terrorist organizations to target IDF armored vehicles, aiming to cause casualties among our forces. The inspiration came from similar Hezbollah activities against the IDF in Lebanon, using either explosives or RPGs. Most of the ammunition was smuggled into the Gaza Strip through tunnels dug under the Philadelphi Route, passing through the city of Rafah.
One of the unfortunate incidents from the past occurred on May 12, 2004, in the Philadelphi Route area, when terrorists firing RPGs from the roof of a building succeeded in blowing up an IDF armored vehicle. The rocket penetrated the vehicle and lit the explosives it was carrying. All five crew members in the armored vehicle were killed.
The event was etched in memory not only because of the casualties but also because hundreds of soldiers from the Class Commanders training course were rushed to the scene to search the ground for the remains of the fallen soldiers to bring them to burial. The images of the soldiers searching in the sand with their hands on all fours were shocking. During the rescue operation, two more soldiers who were securing the area were killed.
This week we were informed of two mass casualty disasters involving IDF forces in Rafah.
The first occurred with the explosion of a “Namer” armored vehicle, which claimed the lives of eight soldiers, and the other - also in Rafah - was the explosion of a booby-trapped building that collapsed on IDF soldiers, killing five of them.
War costs and strategy
Major General (Res.) Gershon Hacohen - who in his last position served as the Commander of the General Staff Corps, and is a researcher at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, as well as a member of the "Securityists" movement - spokes with Maariv on Tuesday to discuss why some might argue that something in the city causes such events to reoccur.
Hacohen explained that he was not impressed by terms such as "disasters,” saying, "This is war, and in war, there are prices to pay. We are viewing war incorrectly. For those who want to understand why we are perceived as a spider's web in the eyes of Hezbollah and criticize Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for their rearmament, this is exactly it. The people of Israel are not willing to pay the prices of war."
"Those who do not pay a price have no sovereignty. Part of the ability of a sovereign is to stand before their people." He emphasized, "I do not belittle human life," and clarified, "We are paying less than in other wars. The Americans lost 4,000 soldiers in 2005."
Hacohen attempted to draw attention to the connection with Egypt, particularly concerning the weapons smuggling into Gaza. He says, "If they had listened to Yigal Allon and opposed the peace agreement and the removal of the settlements, then there wouldn't have been such intense smuggling of weapons from Egypt's Sinai into Gaza.
“We returned everything to Egypt down to the last meter. Since the disengagement [from the Gaza Strip, Hamas has] been receiving ammunition on a massive scale. It's like breaking a leaking plumbing system; you need to shut off the main valve!" emphasized Hacohen.
"This move should have happened in the first days of the war," he said. "We need to prevent all these smuggling operations. The Egyptians were not exactly on our side. Will we manage to maintain our hold on the territory? According to what President Biden demands, definitely not, because he wants us to withdraw to the last meter, back to the border settlements."
Hacohen then noted, "that in 1945 Germany transformed into something else and entered a process of reconstruction because they managed to destroy the police and the cities there. To this day, there is a British and American military presence on German soil."
Major General (Res.) Hacohen concluded his argument, stating, "We need to look and understand that the pain of war is terrible. Of course, we prefer that everything be investigated later. But there's nothing to be done; war has heavy costs. It's easy to say that the IDF should move north, but there will be costs for that too, and someone will start whining - nothing can be done"