Israel on Sunday withdrew all troops from southern Gaza as it says it is preparing for an offensive on the last-standing Hamas stronghold of Rafah.
“Sunday before dawn, the IDF withdrew most of the remaining forces from the Gaza Strip,” the Israeli news website YNET reported. “Now, only a few hundred soldiers are left in the enclave, compared to the peak of 30,000-40,000 (about 20 brigades) during the height of the ground operation.”
The troop withdrawal in the south is seen as a move to facilitate civilian evacuation from Rafah ahead of an operation — a demand pressed by the Biden administration. A “consideration contributing to the move is the desire to leave space for the masses of displaced Gazans who will need to leave Rafah if and when a comprehensive raid is conducted there,” the news website noted.
In recent media appearances, President Joe Biden drew a ‘red line” on Israeli military entering Rafah. The administration threated to slow down the much-needed arms delivery and abandoned Israel at the United Nations by abstaining from a Secutiry Council vote targeting Israel.
Israel was committed to the goal of destroying Hamas in Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu assured. “Hamas hopes that internal and external pressure will force Israel to surrender to its extreme demands. That won’t happen,” Netanyahu said Sunday as he marked six months since the October 7.
According to the IDF, the withdrawal does not indicate letting up in the military operation against Hamas which began in response to the October 7 massacre. “The war in Gaza continues, and we are far from stopping,” Herzi Halevi, IDF chief of the general staff, said in a statement Sunday.
The IDF chief also vowed to bring back remaining hostages believed to be held as human shields by Hamas leadership in Rafah. “The return of the hostages is an urgent and important goal. We are working to return all the hostages, as quickly as possible,” he added.
Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced the details of the withdrawal, the Jerusalem Post reported:
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Sunday that the IDF withdrew from Khan Yunis after Hamas ceased to function in the area, adding that the troops left in preparation for a coming Rafah operation.While speaking at the IDF’s Southern Command base, he stated, “The withdrawal of the troops from Khan Yunis was carried out after Hamas ceased to function as a military organization in the city, the forces left to prepare for the operation in Rafah.”The defense minister said this in light of a situational assessment held at the IDF’s Southern Command with the Director General of the Defense Ministry, Major General (res.) Eyal Zamir, commander Major General Yaron Finkelman, and other staff officers. (…)At the end of the assessment, Gallant said: “I have now completed a situational assessment at the Southern Command, and troops are on their way out of Khan Yunis. The achievements of the 98th Division and its units are extremely impressive—eliminating terrorists, destroying enemy targets, warehouses, weapons, underground, headquarters, and communication rooms—all these things were carried out in a very impressive way. Thus, Hamas stopped functioning as a military organization throughout the Gaza Strip.”The defense minister also said, “The troops are exiting and preparing for their next missions. We saw examples of such missions in the Shifa operation and their coming mission in the Rafah area,” Gallant said at a meeting with military officials, according to a statement from his office.
The Israeli military continued to target Hamas terrorists operating in southern Gaza. “IAF fighter jets conducted a number of strikes over the last few days on three Hamas rocket launch posts embedded inside a humanitarian area in western Khan Yunis,” the IDF disclosed in a statement on Sunday.
“Before the strike, the IDF confirmed the evacuation of civilians and precisely struck the launchers. No uninvolved civilians were harmed by the strikes,” the IDF added. “This is another example of Hamas’ exploitation of humanitarian compounds and areas for its terrorist activities and its use of the civilian population as a human shield.”
With the threat of Hezbollah and other Iranian-backed terrorist groups looming along the Syrian and Lebanese borders, the IDF and Israeli emergency services are holding a large-scale drill in the area.
The Israeli military, Magen David Adom (MDA) — equivalent of the Red Cross in Israel, firefighters and other emergency services conducted a “large exercise drill” near the coast and the Western Galilee area in northern Israel, media reports say.
“IDF, MDA, police, firefighters and municipal services are carrying out readiness drills for ’emergency preparedness’ while rockets and airstrikes continue to be fired across Israeli-Lebanese border,” the Israeli TV channel i24NEWS reported Sunday.
Meanwhile, the IDF continues to hit Hezbollah’s terrorist buildup in southern Lebanon.
An Israeli airstrike eliminated Ali Ahmed Hassin, the commander of Radwan forces, Hezbollah’s Iranian-trained terrorist unit, the Times of Israel reported:
The IDF says it eliminated a senior field commander in Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force in an airstrike in southern Lebanon overnight.Ali Ahmed Hassin, according to the IDF, held a rank equivalent to a brigade commander, and was charged with attacks on northern Israel’s Ramim Ridge, an area that has come under repeated rocket, missile, and drone attacks amid the war.“As part of his role, he was responsible for the planning and execution of terror attacks in the Ramim Ridge area against the Israeli home front,” the IDF says.https://twitter.com/JoeTruzman/status/1777318151254159865?t=T5nepPfrVTtZh5AuP2ROsA&s=19
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY