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Interesting concept. Control the center and a supply route into the center. Attack outwards. They face a serious problem communicating and supporting each other. And eventually they are pushed out off the edge of town where the air assets will slaughter them.

Makes sense to me- earlier on, Hamas fighters generally had some sort of option to flee to the south. So the Israelis tried to cut the North-South communication, surround as large an enclave as they could, then reduce it from outside in.

But in the case of Rafah, there is no fleeing to the sought for Hamas: Israel controls the territory between Rafah and Egypt. In fact, Israel controls about 270° around Rafah, with the open side being no real escape, because it stops at the ocean. So instead of fighting outside-in to trap Hamas fighters, they're already trapped. And by simple geometry many of their lines of communication must cross the center of the town. So start there, cut out the center of the tunnel system, and drive them to the ends, where they're trapped, or above ground, where they're hemmed in by ground forces and will be mowed down.

It's almost poetic really, that the west side of Rafah is open- the Israelis can end up finishing this thing by literally driving Hamas into the sea...