Israel withdraws troops from southern Gaza for ‘tactical reasons’
Israel has pulled all of its ground troops out of southern Gaza for “tactical reasons”, the country’s army has said, raising questions about the future direction of the war as Hamas and Israeli delegations travel to Egypt for a new round of ceasefire talks, The Guardian reports.
Two brigades will stay in the northern half of the Gaza Strip and the new corridor that now bifurcates the Palestinian territory at Wadi Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces said on Sunday, in order to “preserve the IDF’s freedom of action and its ability to conduct precise intelligence based-operations”.
It is believed the drawdown is primarily to relieve reservists after nearly four months of intense fighting in the decimated southern city of Khan Younis, rather than any significant shift in strategy.
An army official who spoke to the Israel daily Haaretz said: “There’s no need for us to remain in Khan Younis. The 98th Division dismantled Hamas’s Khan Younis brigades and killed thousands of its members. We did everything we could there.”
Displaced Palestinians from the city may now be able to return to their homes, they said.
Military analysts said on Sunday that an Israeli ground offensive on Gaza’s southernmost town of Rafah, where about 1.5 million people were sheltering, was not off the table.
But the timing of the announcement coincides with the beginning of a round of mediated talks in Cairo, the Egyptian capital, aimed at securing a second truce and hostage release deal, and is being received as a positive sign that the latest negotiations, after much faltering, may finally bear fruit.
Israel confirmed on Sunday it would send a delegation to take part in the latest negotiations, after the Palestinian militant group Hamas had announced the day before it would send negotiators.
Israeli media reported that the country’s delegation included the chiefs of the Mossad and Shin Bet, and is operating with an “expanded mandate”. The CIA director, Bill Burns, is also expected to attend the talks, which will begin on Sunday evening, alongside the Qatari foreign minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.
