In the unforgiving landscape of conflict, innocent lives are often reduced to mere pawns in the grand game of geopolitics.

Nowhere is this tragic truth more evident than in the besieged city of Rafah.

Caught between the might of Israel and the diplomatic dance of the United States, the people of Rafah find themselves unwitting players in a game of high-stakes brinkmanship, where their lives hang in the balance as bargaining chips in a cynical exchange of power.

As Israeli forces tighten their grip on the city, forcing tens of thousands to flee their homes, the true cost of this geopolitical gambit becomes painfully apparent.

An estimated 80,000 Palestinians have fled Rafah and thousands more are attempting to leave as Israeli forces are conducting operations in several areas there.

In a thinly veiled response to US President Joe Biden’s warning that arms supplies could be withheld if Israel invades Rafah, Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu said that his country is prepared to “stand alone.”

“If we must, we shall fight with our fingernails,” he said in a video statement.

He added, “But we have much more than our fingernails, and with that strength of spirit, with God’s help, together we shall be victorious.”

Behind the rhetoric lies a sobering reality; Rafah, once designated as a “safe place” by Israel, has now become a crucible of suffering. It now bears the scars of betrayal, its inhabitants abandoned to the ravages of war.

Pointing to the dire conditions in Rafah, Ori Goldberg, an Israeli political commentator, opined that the fate of Rafah’s population is being used by Israel as a bargaining chip amid growing tension with the US over the conduct of its war on the Palestinian territory.

“I don’t think Israel is shrugging off American pressure. I think Israel is posturing,” Goldberg said.

“This is not yet a ground operation. Israel is hedging its involvement in the situation in Rafah. It is a horrible thing to say, but right now the Palestinians in Rafah are pawns in a game that is mostly being played between Israel and the United States. It’s not with Hamas.

“If Netanyahu can deliver on a deal, which is the only achievement he can have as an offensive on Rafah is not considered an achievement, even in Israel. If he can deliver on a deal, he will seem like the Prime Minister who mostly definitely had his cake and ate it too.”
Ori Goldberg

Goldberg noted, “We’ve seen Israel when it isn’t in a negotiating mood. We’ve seen Israel attack, decimate, destroy mercilessly. The attacks now on Rafah, as sad as it is to say, are still more of a ploy than they are an offensive plan. Israel has nothing to accomplish in Rafah.”

“Rafah and its inhabitants are now pawns in a game played, as I said before, between Israel and the United States,” Goldberg added.

Rafah may be a pawn in the chess game of war, but its people deserve to be seen, heard, and valued as more than just pieces on a board.

The Israeli and Hamas delegations left Cairo early on Friday, May 10, 2024, with this latest round of ceasefire talks mediated by Qatar, the US and Egypt, ending without a deal.

Hamas’s political bureau said that Israel “rejected the proposal” and “raised objections to it on several central issues”, without specifying what. It added that the “ball is now completely in the hands of the occupation [Israel].”

Egyptian Foreign Ministry said Hamas and Israel must show “flexibility” if they are to strike a deal for a ceasefire in Gaza and the return of captives.

Hamas Active In North Gaza, Expected To Rebuild In South After Rafah Invasion

In their latest battlefield assessment, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) and the Critical Threats Project (CTP), two US-based think tanks, noted that despite Israel’s repeated “clearing efforts”, Hamas “remains active and combat effective in the northern Gaza Strip.”

The war monitors stated that as Israel prepares to launch a full ground invasion of southern Gaza’s Rafah city, Israeli forces carried out their third “re-clearing” of Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighbourhood on Wednesday, “demonstrating that Hamas remains active beyond just Rafah.”

“As Hamas has rebuilt its capacity in northern Gaza, so too will it likely rebuild in Rafah after the planned ground operation,” the ISW and CTP said.

“Hamas’ remaining presence throughout the Gaza Strip supports CTP-ISW’s assessment that Hamas expects that it would survive an Israeli clearing operation into Rafah,” the monitors said.

“Hamas likely calculates that it could rebuild itself in Rafah in the same way that it is currently in the northern Gaza Strip,” they asserted.