Israel has no choice but to go into Rafa. Israel must eradicate Hamas, or Hamas will eradicate Israel. Hamas works for Iran and has Iran's full support.
This is a battle between good and evil. It is both religious and political. Israel must go into Rafa or Oct. 7 will happen again. The type of evil perpetrated by Hamas on Oct. 7 was demonic and had the full support of the Palestinian population.
There are videos showing the terrorists butchering Israeli babies, children, women and men. These videos were taken by the terrorists while carrying out their horror. Everyone that has seen the videos has testified that they had no idea that such evil even existed. It was that bad. It was the stuff that horror films are made of.
Moreover, the 'civilians' in Gaza were completely aware that this was happening and was going to happen while it was being planned. They encouraged it, they supported it and they celebrated it.
Why do you think Hamas terrorists took so many dead bodies back to Gaza? It was to let the 'civilians' celebrate and participate in the massacre. There are videos of civilians kicking spitting and beating the dead bodies while shouting Allah Akbar. There are videos of civilians cutting off the heads and other body parts off of the dead bodies. These videos have been seen by many of our politicians and Middle East experts who have gone to Israel and toured the kibbutzim (villages) where the massacres took place.
The entire Gaza Strip is a huge military base. Almost every house has a tunnel entrance. It is estimated that there is between 450 and 750 mi of underground tunnels, rooms, munitions factories and warehouses built with humanitarian aid money that was supposed to go to build schools, hospitals, roads, etc. That kind of construction can't be done quietly or secretly. Billions of dollars and years of work have gone into excavating this underground base. It is tiled, decorated and fitted out with air conditioning and plumbing. This takes a lot of digging and creates a lot of noise. It took a lot of different people with different skills to do this, such as engineers, architects and trades people. Everyone knew deconstruction was taking place.
Women in Gaza give birth for the purpose of creating future soldiers. Boys and girls are taught in school by Hamas terrorists. They go to Hamas military training camps instead of summer camp. They are taught that they are born to die for Allah. This is the most evil place on Earth. It is even more evil than Isis.
When you see pictures of the wounded people in Gaza, it is impossible not to hurt for them. The children are suffering the most. They are truly innocent, because they have not yet been corrupted. Even those that supported Hamas have our pity when we see the suffering that they have brought upon themselves.
But they have brought this upon themselves. If Israel does not continue with this war until they have their hostages back and complete victory over hamas, they will continue to be attacked and killed by Hamas terrorists. It is truly a situation of kill or be killed.
Hamas could have stopped this at any time by laying down their weapons and releasing the hostages. But they don't because they are masters of media exploitation. They present themselves as victims and gaslight the world. They call themselves a resistance movement, but they have refused a Palestinian state of their own since 1948.
Please think about what I have said the next time you find yourself criticizing Israel for what it is doing to survive and protect its citizens. Israel must continue into Rafa in order to completely eradicate Hamas and recover their hostages.
Catherine Cummings Bandera County
