I think it is understandable why Israel does not want to leave Hamas a safe haven, because if they do leave Hamas a safe haven, it is entirely predictable that Hamas will just use it to conduct future attacks on Israel.
So Israel wants to establish control over the Gaza strip as a whole.
Maybe after that Hamas will reform somewhere else or something, or maybe future people will join Hamas or a Hamas-like organization as a result, but at least Hamas won't be able to fire rockets at Israel from Gaza or (worse) to plan and launch some other type of October 7 style attack 5-10 years down the line, without there either being Israeli troops or some other sort of non-Hamas security force there to stop them.
Considering the fact that Israel wasn't able to prevent Hamas from launching rockets from Khan Younis the day after they withdrew it seems pretty unlikely that they'll be any more successful in Rafah. It's not like Rafah is their only "safe haven", at this point they're pretty safe anywhere in the Gaza Strip besides right next to the border and at the Netzarim Corridor.
This isn't a serious military operation, it's a pointless delaying tactic from Netanyahu to avoid going to prison for his crimes.
