Israel withdraws thousands of soldiers from Gaza as fighting focuses on southern enclave

Thousands of Israeli soldiers will withdraw from the Strip LoopThe military said Monday, in the first significant troop reduction since the start of the war, as forces continued to attack the main city in the southern half of the enclave.

The troop movement could indicate that fighting is easing in some parts of the Strip, especially in the north, where the army has said it is close to assuming operational control. Israel has received pressure from its main ally, the United States, to reduce the intensity of its offensive.

The news of the withdrawal came before a new visit by the United States Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, to the region and after Joe Biden’s government avoided the Congress to approve an urgent arms sale to Israel.

But in some areas of Gaza the fighting continued to be fierce, especially in the southern city of Khan Younis and in the center of the territory. Israel has promised that the war will continue until it achieves its objectives, including the dismantling of Hamas, which has ruled the Strip for 16 years.

The army explained in a statement on Monday that five brigades, or several thousand soldiers, will leave Gaza in the coming weeks to train and rest.

In a conference the day before, in which the departure of the troops was announced without offering more details, the army spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari did not clarify whether the decision meant that Israel began a new phase of the war.

“The objectives of war require prolonged combat, and we are preparing accordingly,” he added.

Israel has vowed to crush Hamas’s military and governance capabilities in a war, sparked by the insurgent group’s assault on southern Israel on Oct. 7 that left 1,200 people dead, most of them civilians. About 240 people were taken hostage.

Israel responded with an intense air, land and sea campaign that has claimed the lives of more than 21,800 people in Gaza, two-thirds of whom were women and minors, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which is controlled by Hamas and not difference between civilian victims and combatants in their counting.

According to Israeli authorities, more than 8,000 fighters have been killed, but they offered no evidence to support that claim. In addition, they blame Hamas for the high number of civilian casualties, alleging that the insurgents infiltrate residential areas, including schools and hospitals.

The war has displaced around 85% of the enclave’s 2.3 million inhabitants, leaving waves of people seeking refuge in areas designated by Israel as safe, which are still bombarded by its army. Palestinians feel there is nowhere safe in the small enclave.

In Khan Younis, where Israel is believed to have thousands of troops, residents reported airstrikes and shelling in the west and center of the city. Both the army and the Islamic Jihad insurgent group reported fighting in the area.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said on evening.

Clashes have also been reported in urban refugee camps in central Gaza, where Israel expanded its offensive last week.

“This is our routine: bombings, massacres and martyrs,” said Saeed Moustafa, a Palestinian from the Nuseirat camp, who said he could hear sporadic explosions and gunfire both in his area and in the nearby de Bureij and Maghazi camps.

“As we speak, a large explosion occurred not far from my house,” he explained by phone Monday morning.

The military said it killed Adel Mismah, a regional commander of Hamas’s elite Nukhba forces, in an airstrike in the central city of Deir al-Balah.

Hamas fired a large number of projectiles towards Israel, including Tel Aviv, at midnight on Sunday, coinciding with the beginning of the year.

Source: AP