Netanyahu’s defiance of Biden-Harris Rafah invasion threats led to elimination of Sinwar, experts say

JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to ignore dire warnings from President Biden and Vice President Harris not to conquer the last major stronghold of Hamas terrorists in Rafah proved to be correct, according to military and Middle East experts.

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the country’s Shin Bet intelligence agency announced Wednesday that "soldiers from the Southern Command eliminated Yahya Sinwar, the leader of the Hamas terrorist organization, in an operation in the southern Gaza Strip."

Biden and Harris congratulated Israel over the death of the Hamas terror chief, but, earlier this year, both warned Israel about going into Rafah, where Sinwar met his end.   

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IDF forces operating in Rafah, a city in the Gaza Strip. (IDF Spokesman's Office)

Sinwar oversaw the massacre of nearly 1,200 people Oct. 7, 2023, including over 40 American citizens.

In March, Harris declined to rule out "consequences" for Israel if it moved forward with an invasion of Rafah in Gaza.

"We have been clear in multiple conversations and in every way that any major military operation in Rafah would be a huge mistake," Harris told ABC News at the time."Let me tell you something. I have studied the maps. There's nowhere for those folks to go."

Also in March, Biden National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan echoed Harris’ warning. 

"Our position is that Hamas should not be allowed a safe haven in Rafah or anywhere else," Sullivan noted during a White House Press briefing. "But a major ground operation there would be a mistake. It would lead to more innocent civilian deaths, worsen the already dire humanitarian crisis, deepen the anarchy in Gaza and further isolate Israel internationally."

President Biden meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office at the White House July 25, 2024, in Washington, D.C. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

In May, Biden went as far as threatening Israel, saying he would not furnish the Jewish state with weapons if it entered Rafah. Biden told CNN "if they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities — that deal with that problem."

Amit Segal, chief political analyst of Israel's Channel 12, told Fox News Digital, "The elimination of Sinwar proves that the continuation of the war was not a whim, the entry into Rafah was not a vendetta and the refusal to surrender to Hamas to resolve the northern front was not a rash decision.

"There is a strategy, and it is to ensure, front by front, that the entire Middle East sees what happens to those who attack Israel."

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Yahya Sinwar, center, the late leader of Hamas, during a ceremony for members killed by Israeli air strikes at Yarmouk Stadium May 24, 2021, in Gaza City, Gaza.   (Laurent Van der Stockt/Getty Images)

New information emerged about the elimination of Sinwar Friday. An IDF spokesman said "Sinwar’s main goal was to wipe Israel off the map. This operation achievement is one fragment out of a one-year endeavor" in Gaza. 

He said Sinwar was in the "same tunnel where six hostages were executed" in August.

One of the six hostages murdered was Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin.  

"We understand Sinwar was in that area; a few hundred meters from that tunnel is where he was eliminated," the IDF spokesman noted, adding there are "indications of senior Hamas leaders in Rafah area." 

There are 14,000 occurrences of Hamas booby-trapped buildings in the Rafah area, the IDF spokesman added.

Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, points at a map of the Gaza Strip during a press conference at the Government Press Office in Jerusalem Sept. 4, 2024.  (Abir Sultan/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

"Had Prime Minister Netanyahu listened to Biden and Harris and not entered Rafah, we may have never reached Sinwar. The people of America and Israel overwhelmingly supported our entry into Rafah and want to see Hamas committed to the annals of history. Now it's time to finish Hamas and bring home the hostages," Israeli Lt. Col (res) Yoni Chetboun, former deputy speaker of the Knesset and a decorated special forces operator, told Fox News Digital.

ELIMINATION OF SINWAR IS ‘SIGNIFICANT AND PRESENTS OPPORTUNITY FOR CEASE-FIRE, STATE DEPARTMENT SAYS 

Harris’ misjudgment about the ground war in Gaza sparked some intense criticism and ridicule on social media from foreign policy experts. American-Israeli Middle East expert Caroline Glick, wrote on X, "Sinwar was killed in Rafah — a mile from the Egyptian border. Kamala threatened Israel with sanctions if we went in. Oh, and she studied the maps." 

The campaign by the U.S. government and the European Union to rope in Israel’s push to eradicate the Iranian regime-backed terrorist movements, Hamas and Hezbollah, has so far not seemed to impact Netanyahu's war plans.

Josep Borrell, the left-wing European Union's foreign policy chief who suggested in February that the United States slash military aid to Israel, said at the time there was no military solution to defeat Hamas. 

Protesters rally outside the Defense Ministry against the government and to show support for the hostages kidnapped during the deadly Oct. 7 attack amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas in Tel Aviv, Israel, Sept. 1, 2024. (Reuters/Florion Goga)

Max Abrahms, a leading expert on counterterrorism and a tenured professor of political science at Northeastern University, told Fox News Digital, "Biden and Harris have been basing their advice to Netanyahu on American political calculations. The White House is keenly aware that the Democratic Party has a strong anti-Israel constituency. For this reason, the White House has tried to coerce Netanyahu to withdraw Israeli forces from Gaza before the Hamas threat is fully handled and specifically against a Rafah operation.

"Had Netanyahu heeded that advice, Sinwar would be alive. Israel is safer for ignoring this White House, an important lesson as Netanyahu weighs military options against Iran."

Following news of Sinwar's death, a reporter at the State Department briefing on Thursday asked Spokesman Matthew Miller whether the Biden Administration's policy towards Israel invading Rafah was in hindsight preemptive.  

In his response, Miller said: "No, I will say that we always made clear that we supported Israel conducting counterterrorism operations to target the leaders of Hamas and to target Hamas militants. And not only did we make clear we supported it, but we provided active intelligence support for those operations. And I think I’ll leave it at that."

Fox News Digital press queries asking President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris whether they erred in their warnings to Netanyahu over Rafah were not returned. 

Fox News Digital’s Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.

Benjamin Weinthal reports on Israel, Iran, Syria, Turkey and Europe. You can follow Benjamin on Twitter @BenWeinthal, and email him at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.