Gaza – An Israeli military spokesman said on Sunday that the army withdrew all ground forces from the southern Gaza Strip except for one battalion, while Israeli media reported that this withdrawal comes within the framework of preparations for a ground operation in the city of Rafah.
Israeli Army Radio said that last night, Israel withdrew all units of the 98th Division with its three brigades from the Khan Yunis area following 4 months of fighting, leaving only the Nahal Brigade operating in the Netzarim Corridor in Gaza, which is the corridor that the occupation army established to cut off the north from the south with the aim of preventing… Gazans are unable to return to the northern Strip.
Maariv newspaper confirmed that one of the Israeli army brigades is still present inside Gaza to prevent the return of Palestinians to the northern Gaza Strip.
Israeli media said that the withdrawal of the 98th Division from Khan Yunis comes within the framework of preparations for an operation in Rafah.
Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper also reported, citing sources in the Israeli army, that one of the reasons for the withdrawal is to leave places for the displaced who will be asked to leave Rafah, stressing at the same time that there is no connection between the American pressures exerted on Israel and the withdrawal from Khan Yunis.
The sources added – according to the newspaper – that the occupation army is preparing to continue operations once morest the movement of factions that they did not deal with in Deir al-Balah and Rafah, adding that the army can return to Khan Yunis if necessary.
For its part, Palestinian sources reported to Anadolu correspondent that Israeli army forces retreated from all western areas of the city of Khan Yunis, while they remained stationed east of the city.
In turn, the private Israeli Channel 12 said, “The Israeli army completed its operation in Khan Yunis, and the fighters completed their exit from there,” and added that army forces consisting of 4 different brigades “are now stationed in the humanitarian corridor and in the northern Gaza Strip in the Beit Hanoun area.”
The channel indicated that “the Israeli army will focus on the method of raids in the Gaza Strip, based on the available intelligence information.”
The channel did not rule out that the Israeli army’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip was to prepare soldiers for a ground operation in Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli military operation began in Khan Yunis by land on the third of last December, with the aim of recovering the Israeli detainees held by the faction movement, but the Israeli army, according to its claims of withdrawal, had left the city without achieving its goals.
The announcement of the withdrawal from Khan Yunis comes following a qualitative operation by the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the faction movement, carried out yesterday, Saturday, in which the occupation caused 14 deaths and several injuries.
For 6 months, the Israeli army has been waging a devastating war on Gaza, which left tens of thousands of martyrs and wounded, most of them children and women, which necessitated the trial of Tel Aviv before the International Court of Justice on the grounds of genocide.
The Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip announced today that the number of victims of the Israeli aggression on the Strip has risen today to 33,175 martyrs and 75,886 wounded since October 7, including 38 martyrs and 71 injured who fell in the past 24 hours.
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2024-04-07 21:36:30
