Israel withdraws thousands of troops from Gaza as fighting focuses on the enclave’s main southern city

TEL AVIV, Israel – Thousands of Israeli soldiers are being moved out of the Gaza Strip, the military said Monday, in the first significant troop reduction since the war began as forces continued to attack the main city in the southern half of the Gaza Strip. enclave.

The troop movement could indicate that fighting is easing in some areas of Gaza, particularly in the northern half, where the army has said it is close to assuming operational control.

Israel has been under pressure from its main ally, the United States, to begin moving to lower intensity fighting.

News of the reduction came ahead of Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to the region and after the Biden administration bypassed Congress for the second time this month to approve an emergency arms sale to Israel.

But fierce fighting continued in other areas of Gaza, especially in the southern city of Khan Younis and in central areas of the territory.

This photograph taken from the Israeli border with the Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing over central Gaza following the Israeli strikes on January 1, 2024, amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Hamas militant group. AFP via Getty Images

Israel has vowed to press ahead until its war goals are achieved, including dismantling Hamas, which has ruled Gaza for 16 years.

The army said in a statement on Monday that five brigades, or several thousand soldiers, would be moved out of Gaza in the coming weeks for training and rest.

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A man standing on the rubble of a building destroyed by Israeli bombing smokes a cigarette in the Rafah refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip, on January 1, 2024. AFP via Getty Images

In a briefing on Sunday in which the troop withdrawal was first announced without specifying how many forces would leave, army spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari did not say whether the decision meant Israel was launching a new phase of the war.

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

Israel has vowed to crush Hamas’s military and governance capabilities in its war, which was sparked by the militant group’s Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel, in which 1,200 people were killed. About 240 people were taken hostage.

Israel responded with a ferocious air, land and sea offensive that has killed more than 21,800 people in Gaza, two-thirds of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count.

Israel says more than 8,000 terrorists have been killed, without providing evidence. It blames Hamas for the high number of civilian deaths, saying militants set up shop in residential areas, including schools and hospitals.

The war has displaced about 85% of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents, causing waves of people to seek refuge in Israeli-designated safe zones that the army has nonetheless bombed.

Palestinians feel that nowhere is safe in this small enclave.

BATTLES IN THE SOUTH

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. The military and the Islamic Jihad militant group reported clashes in the area.

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The Palestinian Red Crescent said on X, formerly Twitter, that it transported several dead and wounded after an attack on Sunday night on Beach Street in Khan Younis. He posted nighttime footage showing medics carrying the injured to ambulances.

The sun rises over the Rafah refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip on January 1, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas. AFP via Getty Images Israeli military vehicles move near the Israel-Gaza border, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in southern Israel, December 31, 2023. REUTERS

Fighting was also reported in urban refugee camps in central Gaza, where Israel expanded its offensive last week.

“It’s our routine: bombings, massacres and martyrs,” said Saeed Moustafa, a Palestinian from the Nuseirat camp. He said he could hear sporadic explosions and gunshots in Nuseirat and in the nearby fields of Bureij and Maghazi.

“Just as we speak, there’s a big explosion not far from my house,” he said in a phone call Monday morning.

A girl stands at the door of a house destroyed by Israeli bombing in the Rafah refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip, on January 1, 2024. AFP via Getty Images

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

Hamas fired a large barrage of rockets toward Israel, including at its Tel Aviv shopping center, as the clock struck midnight on New Year’s Eve.

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‘A DIFFERENT MODE OF OPERATION’

Israel has said the war will last months. She has argued that she needs time to clear Gaza of militant weapons and infrastructure and prevent Hamas from carrying out more attacks. Israel has resisted international calls for a long-term ceasefire, saying doing so would amount to a victory for Hamas.

Shlomo Brom, a retired brigadier general who was once in charge of strategic planning in the Israeli military, said the troop changes may be the result of American pressure. He said it indicated a change in the way Israel was conducting the war in some areas.

“The war doesn’t stop,” Brom said. “It’s the beginning of a different way of operating.”

Israelis still largely support the goals of the war, even as the cost in soldiers’ lives is rising.

Over the weekend, the military said that of the soldiers killed since the ground operation began (as of Monday, 172 in total), 18 died from friendly fire, while another 11 died from weapons or equipment malfunctions or accidents. .

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Source: vtt.edu.vn

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