JERUSALEM - Israeli tanks pulled out of some Gaza City districts on Jan 1 while remaining in others, residents said. The move came ahead of a planned troop reduction in the war.
However, fighting raged elsewhere in the Palestinian enclave along with intense bombardment.
The Israeli move to withdraw some forces from Gaza is aimed at shifting to more targeted operations against Hamas, an Israeli official said. The country is partially returning reservists to civilian life to help the economy as the war looks set to last well into 2024, the official added.
The war will continue in the Palestinian enclave until the armed group is toppled, the official said, adding that some of the five brigades withdrawn will prepare for a possible flare-up of a second front against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The Gaza offensive was launched after Hamas attacked southern Israel on Oct 7. Since then, Israeli officials have said they planned to wage it in three main stages.
The first was intense shelling to clear access routes for ground forces and encourage civilians to evacuate. The second was the invasion that began on Oct 27.
With tanks and troops having now overrun much of the Gaza Strip, largely asserting control despite Palestinian gunmen continuing their ambushes from hidden tunnels and bunkers, the military is moving to the third stage of the war, said the official, who could not be identified by name given the sensitivity of the issue.
“This will take six months at least, and involve intense mopping-up missions against the terrorists. No one is talking about doves of peace being flown from Shajaia,” the official told Reuters, referring to a Gaza district ravaged by fighting.
In addition to some 1,200 people killed on Oct 7, Hamas took around 240 hostages.
The armed group is still holding 129 of them in Gaza, after releasing about 100 people in November. They were freed during a week-long truce in exchange for dozens of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
Israel is determined to recover the remaining hostages. Truce efforts mediated by Qatar and Egypt have raised the prospect of some of them being freed.
The shift appeared to correspond to pressure from Israel’s top ally, the United States, to review tactics and do more to protect non-combatants.
Fighting continues
Residents of Sheikh Radwan district in Gaza City, in the northern part of the enclave that Israel’s offensive focused on first, said tanks had withdrawn after what they described as the most intense 10 days of warfare since the conflict began.
“The tanks were very near. We could see them outside the houses. We couldn’t get out to fill water,” said Mr Nasser, a father of seven living in Sheikh Radwan, who did not give his family name for fear of Israeli reprisals.
Tanks also pulled out of Gaza City’s al-Mina district and parts of Tel al-Hawa district, while retaining some positions in the suburb controlling the enclave’s main coastal road, residents said.
However, tanks remained in other parts of northern Gaza and health officials said some people trying to return to their homes in a southern district of Gaza City had been killed by Israeli fire on Dec 31.
Fighting in central parts of the enclave continued unabated on Jan 1, residents there said, with tanks pushing into al-Bureij and air strikes targeting al-Nuseirat, al-Maghazi and the southern city of Khan Younis.
Hamas showed its continued ability to target Israel after more than 12 weeks of the war, launching a barrage of rocket fire at Tel Aviv on Jan 1.
Bolstering economy
Israel initially drafted 300,000 reservists for the war – an estimated 10 per cent to 15 per cent of its workforce – for what looks set to be its longest-ever war.
Government sources have said between 200,000 and 250,000 were still serving and absent from jobs or studies.
The official said two of the brigades being withdrawn were made up of reservists, and described the move as designed to “re-energise the Israeli economy”.
Local media have reported that several military divisions were deployed throughout Gaza.
The official said some of the troops pulled out of Gaza in the south would be prepared for rotation to the northern border with Lebanon, where Hezbollah has been exchanging fire with Israel in solidarity with the Palestinians.
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2024-01-01 09:43:47Z
CBMiXmh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnN0cmFpdHN0aW1lcy5jb20vYXNpYS9pc3JhZWwtdG8tcHVsbC1zb21lLXRyb29wcy1mcm9tLWdhemEtYXMtd2FyLWVudGVycy1uZXctcGhhc2XSAQA
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