“We have been clear in multiple conversations and in every way that any major military operation in Rafah would be a huge mistake,” Kamala Harris had warned Israel, and threatened that there would be consequences.

Going into Rafah in Gaza, cut off the Hamas pipeline to Egypt. It also enabled Israel to get Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas on the ground, who had been hiding out in Rafah.

The major military operation denounced by Kamala was indeed the only way to get Sinwar and to break the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood terrorist group.

It was also the location of a number of the hostages.

The Biden-Harris administration had been demanding back in January that Israel end major combat operations against Hamas and switch over to ‘targeted strikes’ based on intelligence.

But Israel didn’t get Sinwar based on intelligence or with a targeted strike. It stumbled on him without knowing who he even was.

On Friday, IDF forces encountered two terrorists around the house where Sinwar was located, one possibly part of the group that accompanied Sinwar in his final hours… a soldier from the 450th Battalion spotted two suspicious figures moving between the ruins of the neighborhood.

He reported the sighting, and Battalion Commander Lt. Col. Ran Canaan advanced with infantry and armored forces. He observed three suspicious individuals—two walking ahead, wrapped in blankets, and a third trailing behind, wearing a combat vest and armed, with a hood covering his head. Initially, there was concern that the two figures could be hostages, and the commander opened fire at the third individual, identified as a terrorist, hitting his hand. At this point, no one realized the terrorists was Sinwar.

At that moment, the terrorists split up. Two entered a nearby house, while the third, later confirmed as Sinwar, fled to another.

This is the reality of war. Sometimes you know what you’re doing. Other times you get lucky. Shake enough trees and the cat falls out.

Without major combat operations, without evacuating the so-called civilian population (much of which supports Hamas and some of which is Hamas), and going house by house, Sinwar would not have been found.

The Biden-Harris administration was fundamentally wrong. Its idea of how to fight wars has led to defeat in Afghanistan and a prolonged campaign against the Houthis in Yemen that shows no sign of ending because there is no plan to win.

This is how you win.