2024-04-07 11:42:58
(Jerusalem) Israel has withdrawn its troops from the south of the Gaza Strip, notably from the town of Khan Younes, following months of fighting once morest the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, the army and Israeli media said on Sunday.
Posted at 7:42 a.m.
The army clarified that a “significant force” would continue to operate in the small Palestinian territory according to its strategic needs.
“A significant force led by the 162nd Division and the Nahal Brigade continues to operate in the Gaza Strip to ensure the army’s freedom of action and its ability to conduct precise, intelligence-based operations,” his statement said. .
The Israeli daily Haaretz argues that the withdrawal of infantry from the southern Gaza Strip is motivated by the fact that the army has achieved its objectives there.
According to a military official quoted by the newspaper, often considered more left-wing than most general dailies, “we no longer need to stay in the strategic sector without necessity”.
“The 98th Division dismantled the Hamas brigades in Khan Yunis and killed thousands of their members. We did everything we had to do there.”
Palestinians displaced from Khan Yunis — only a portion of the displaced — can now return home following finding refuge in Rafah, further south near the border with Egypt, according to this soldier.
Khan Younes, a large city in southern Gaza, was for months the scene of incessant airstrikes and intense fighting between Hamas forces and the Israeli army.
Attention is now focused on Rafah where, despite the concern of many foreign capitals, Israel has said it is determined to launch a ground offensive while more than 1.5 million Gazans have found refuge there.
At least 33,175 people, mostly women and children, have been killed in Israel’s military reprisal campaign, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza, which has been controlled since 2007 by Hamas.
Negotiations in Cairo
Despite the concerns of the international community over the risk of famine faced by the majority of the 2.4 million inhabitants in Gaza and calls for a truce, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he wants to continue the war until “the destruction of the Hamas.”
But he also agreed to send the head of the secret services, David Barnea, to Cairo for yet another session of indirect negotiations with Hamas via international mediators-United States, Qatar, Egypt.
Also expected in Cairo on Sunday are CIA chief Bill Burns, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdelrahmane Al-Thani and a Hamas delegation, according to pro-government Egyptian media Al-Qahera News.
Objective: conclude a truce agreement which would allow a cessation of hostilities, the release of hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, and increased humanitarian aid so necessary to the desperate population of Gaza.
PHOTO AMIR COHEN, REUTERS
Humanitarian aid was dropped from a plane over the Gaza Strip on April 7.
But caution remains in order because the positions of the protagonists are still far apart following several rounds of negotiations in recent months remained without result.
Moreover, Hamas said on Saturday that it would not give up its demands for an agreement: “a complete ceasefire”, an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, a return of the displaced, and a “serious” agreement on exchange of Palestinian hostages and prisoners.
Only one truce has taken place since the start of the war, and it allowed the release of around a hundred hostages at the end of November in exchange for Palestinian detainees.
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