Israel Operation in the Gaza Strip: Defending the War against Hamas in the Middle East, Israel, and the Resolution of the Gaza City Controversy
Gallant said that the assumption that the north’s withdrawal was the beginning of the end of the conflict was incorrect.
TEL AVIV, Israel — Israeli ground troops have withdrawn from some areas of Gaza City, a spokesperson for the municipality in the Hamas-run government said.
In a Tuesday evening briefing, Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said Israel’s military remains “in a very high state of readiness in all arenas.”
The forces are fighting in the Khan Yunis area. “We are operating above and below ground, eliminating terrorists and continuing to destroy terrorist infrastructure.”
Hagari spoke a few hours after Israel announced that a senior Hamas leader, Saleh al-Arouri, had been killed in an explosion in Beirut. Arouri, the deputy head of Hamas’ Lebanon-based political bureau, was the senior-most leader of the Islamist militant group killed since the war began.
When Hamas killed about 1,200 people and took more than 220 hostage in Gaza on Oct. 7, the conflict began. Israel responded with airstrikes against Gaza, followed by a ground invasion that it says is aimed at eliminating Hamas. More than 22,000 people were killed in 12 weeks of fighting in Gaza, according to the health ministry.
Meanwhile, Israel says it will appear before the United Nations’ International Court of Justice in the Hague to defend itself against charges of genocide in Gaza. South Africa petitioned the court to order Israel to stop its campaign in Gaza.
The focus of the Israeli ground operation in southern Gaza has shifted to eliminate goals and infrastructure of the Hamas movement, the military said Thursday.
There is a ongoing military operation going on in other parts of the Gaza Strip, he said. “What will make me happy is a full cease-fire, an independent Palestinian state and our right to self-determination.”
In a majority of the places I visited, the level of destruction was massive. “I don’t understand this level of targeting the infrastructure and houses.”
He was also finally able to reach his own home, he said, which was badly damaged when a neighbor’s house was struck. “A number of dead bodies were there,” he added.
Gaza City During the First 50 Days of Israel’s Invasion: News from the Center for Strategic Studies at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy
In some parts of the city’s east side, there are still ground fighting and shelling. Shijaiyah is where Nabeeh lives and where three Israeli hostages were killed by an Israeli soldier.
“What we’re seeing is success, really, in the northern part of Gaza, so that Hamas has pretty much lost control there,” Dennis Ross, a longtime diplomat and fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told NPR. Because of that, the Israelis have begun to reduce the number of troops in Gaza because they’re concentrating on other areas.
Gaza City was the focus of Israel’s ground invasion. Troops reached the city in late October.
Some of the most dramatic clashes and strikes of the war so far have taken place there, including the operation at Al-Shifa Hospital and airstrikes that destroyed ancient places of worship such as the Great Omari Mosque and the Church of Saint Porphyrius.
Most of the city’s population fled south for months because of the intense fighting. Much of the city is unrecognizable and uninhabitable. More than 11,000 buildings were damaged or destroyed in Gaza City in the first 50 days of the war, according to an analysis published last month by the United Nations Satellite Center.