The dirty work that France, the UK, Italy, Spain and Germany say they want done, but won’t do themselves.
The question posed here is not: Why is Israel in Gaza. Not: Should Israel be in Gaza? But simply, what is Israel doing there?
One would never know from the headlines, which convey two messages: 1. Israel is feeding, or trying to feed, or failing to feed, Gazans. 2. Israel is killing Palestinians. One would never know that what Israel is doing in Gaza is this: systematically destroying Hamas’ weaponry and tunnels.
For example, the Israel Defense Forces reports that troops from the Givati Infantry Brigade, operating under the 162nd Armored Division, have been conducting operations in the Beit Hanoun area of northern Gaza.
This area of Gaza is roughly three miles away from Israel’s Ashkelon-Sderot railway line. For Hamas to remain in that area of Gaza is to invite another Oct. 7 massacre of Israeli civilians close by.
Spaces are narrow in that part of the world. Here, Gaza. Three miles away, Israel. Here, terrorists busy at work extending their tunnel toward Israel. There in Israel, vulnerability.
So, in coordination with Yahalom combat engineer special operators, the IDF forces eliminated a terrorist cell hiding inside a two-kilometer-long tunnel, which included living quarters and a cache of weapons, including AK-47 rifles and explosive devices.
Note the careful qualifications of the European countries that want to recognize a Palestinian state, on condition that Hamas has no part in running it.
Nice to say so. And meaningless. For all of their criticism of Israel, these countries have not set forth one word on how they would accomplish the depoliticization of Hamas in Gaza. Not to mention: Not France, not Germany, not Spain, not Italy and not the United Kingdom are deploying a single soldier to fight Hamas. These countries can lay down the conditions, but only Israel is doing the dirty work. Not only doing it, but getting condemned for it and being threatened because of it.
Get out of Gaza, these European nations say. But no Hamas rule in Gaza, these nations say.
That’s a direct contradiction.
What else are IDF forces doing in Gaza? So far they have eliminated other terrorists in the Beit Hanoun area of northern Gaza and dismantled terrorist infrastructure — both above and below ground.
It is not only the IDF’s Givati forces that are operating in Gaza. Here is what the troops from the Kfir Infantry Brigade, operating under the 36th Armored Division, are doing in southern Khan Yunis: working to strengthen operational control along the Magen Oz Corridor, which divides through Khan Yunis into eastern and western sections.
Why should they do that? you might ask. Why shouldn’t the Kfir troops just leave that area?
In that area Kfir troops have uncovered a weapons storage site containing a large cache of fragmentation grenades, explosive devices, mortar shells and sniper rifles.
Also in that area, the Kfir troops, acting on precise intelligence provided by the Military Intelligence Directorate’s Unit 504, apprehended terrorists deep inside Khan Yunis.
If the IDF refrains from commandeering the Hamas weapons cache there, and from apprehending the terrorists there, just how will France, the UK and the other European nations establish a Palestinian state there, empty of Hamas?
One thing you can be sure of: Neither France nor the UKnor any other European nation is going to send its troops to eliminate Hamas in Gaza. They howl in objection to how Israel does it — talk is very cheap far from the complex scene of action, but only talk, no military action, will be forthcoming from Europe.
Do these European nations think that the Palestinian Authority, which it wishes to recognize as the political authority in a Palestinian state, will send its forces to Gaza to eliminate Hamas there? Anyone who thinks so has no knowledge of the weakness (not talking about corruption, only the military weakness) of the PA. It is extensively infiltrated by Hamas. So who is going to eliminate Hamas for Europe’s fantasy Palestinian state? Only Israel is trying to do it.
More of what the IDF’s Kfir troops are doing:
With support from the IDF’s Combat Engineering Corps, they located and dismantled a tunnel route several hundred meters in length in the Khan Yunis region.
Let’s skip to the IDF’s 98th Paratroopers Division. On July 31, it concluded its mission in the northern Gaza Strip following months of intense fighting.
Troops from the division conducted deep combat operations in key Hamas strongholds, including in Khan Yunis and in Gaza City’s Shejaiya and Zeitoun neighborhoods.
As part of the operation in northern Gaza, more than 1,500 terrorist infrastructure sites were dis- mantled and dozens of terrorists were eliminated.
1,500 terrorist infrastructure sites: If France’s Macron somehow does realize his fantasy of a demilitarized, de-Hamasized, de-terroristized Palestinian state, he can thank the IDF for it.
He might even muster a bit of moral consistency, given that in fighting in northern Gaza, the IDF’s 98th Paratroopers Division dealt a major blow to Hamas’ Shejaiya Battalion, which played a central role in Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attacks.
If France and others really think that what Hamas did on Oct. 7 was wrong and should be prevented from doing again, they would preface their comment on Israel’s behavior in Gaza today with a profound thank-you to the IDF’s 98th Paratroopers Division.
They should thank a lot of other IDF divisions, too. Many of the Hamas terrorists slain in the IDF’s northern Gaza operation — some directly involved in the Oct. 7 massacre — were targeted in coordinated strikes involving the 98th Paratroopers Division’s Fire Control Center, ground forces, the Israeli Air Force and the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet).
It takes a lot for the Israel Defense Forces to do the dirty work that France, the UK, Italy, Spain and Germany say they want done, but won’t do themselves.
Yes, a lot of work. But we have hardly scratched the surface of what the IDF has needed to do in Gaza to eliminate Hamas there. We have gleaned the military data cited above from but a single report by Jewish News Syndicate (JNS). Last week, it issued an entirely different summary.
Pardon the focus on military detail, but when political leaders make general demands — no more Hamas in charge — without making any commitment to effectuate their demands, it is indeed essential to focus on what Israel is doing.
As of July 27, IDF troops from the 646th Reservist Brigade had dismantled a Hamas tunnel and hundreds of terrorist infrastructure sites in the previous three months — after January-March, 2025 ceasefire ended.
Operating under the 99th Division, the Israeli reservists soldiers targeted locations in the Netzarim corridor, Shuya’iyya, Daraj Tuffah and Beit Hanoun. They uncovered military structures, weapons caches, and firing and observation positions used by Palestinian terrorist organizations in Gaza. Approximately 400 terrorists were killed in coordinated operations with the Israel Air Force.
Incidentally, do France, the UK, Italy, Spain or Germany have civilian, non-professional, soldiers, reservists, who would be willing to endanger their lives — and sacrifice their lives — to do all this dirty work in Gaza?
When these countries raise a hue and a cry over the US-Israel method of distributing humanitarian aid to Gazans, these countries should be just as loud in explaining why the aid is needed in the first place. It is needed because of this sequence:
First, Hamas’ pre-Oct. 7, 2023 diversion of aid intended for Gazan civilians in favor of the construction of terror tunnels;
Second, Hamas’ murder, rape, mutilation, burning and kidnapping of some 1,200 Israelis on Oct. 7, 2023 —and the wounding of many more;
Third, Hamas’ post-Oct. 7 refusal to release all the hostages and end the war — the terrible destruction in Gaza — that Hamas itself triggered.
All the obloquy heaped on Israel is a case of the kettle calling itself black: Make war on Israel, then blame Israel for fighting back.
© IJN 2025
