The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) declared victory Thursday in the battle of Rafah, having destroyed Hamas’s four battalions there over the course of four months. It was a battle that Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party nominee for U.S. president, told Israel not to fight, warning of the consequences for civilians there, and even threatening to withhold U.S. weapons. “I have studied the maps,” Harris said, declaring that it was impossible to attack Rafah without hurting civilians. srael, believing it would lose the war without taking Rafah, entered anyway.