Just after the 7 October attack on Israel, I wrote that the Israelis would have to be careful not to fall into the Hamas trap. More than four months later, this could be the week that Israel topples into that trap. A full-scale military assault on Rafah, the part of Gaza where around one and a half million people are now concentrated, will not bring the “absolute victory” promised by the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, but will diminish the security of Israel in the longer term.
You do not have to sympathise with Hamas in any way to think that a major offensive into Rafah would be a mistake. You might, like me, have agreed with the need for Israel’s military campaign so
