The Israeli army’s departure from southern Gaza over the weekend has left the devastated territory in a state of suspense as lively combating there receded on Monday to its lowest ebb since a short truce with Hamas in November.
However whilst some observers hoped Israel’s withdrawal from the realm may portend a brand new cease-fire, each Hamas and Israeli officers steered the battle was not but over.
Analysts mentioned the withdrawal of Israeli troops steered solely that the battle had entered a brand new section, one by which Israel would proceed to mount small-scale operations throughout Gaza to stop Hamas’s resurgence. That technique, they mentioned, might occupy a center floor between reaching an enduring truce with Hamas and ordering a significant floor assault into Rafah, Hamas’s final stronghold in southern Gaza the place multiple million Palestinians have taken refuge.
In a press release on Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel mentioned that whereas Israel was nonetheless pursuing a deal to safe the discharge of its hostages in Gaza, it was additionally searching for “whole victory over Hamas.”
“This victory requires getting into Rafah and eliminating the terrorist battalions there,” Mr. Netanyahu mentioned. “It will occur; there’s a date.” He didn’t specify the date.
By withdrawing now with out having fulfilled its acknowledged mission of eliminating Hamas and with out empowering an alternate Palestinian management, Israel has left behind an influence vacuum in Gaza, by which Hamas might regroup and re-emerge as a army drive throughout a lot of the territory.
The Israeli army mentioned on Sunday that its 98th Division had left Khan Younis in southern Gaza so as “to recuperate and put together for future operations.” That leaves no Israeli troops actively maneuvering in southern Gaza, in keeping with two officers briefed on the matter who weren’t approved to talk publicly about it.
The Israeli management painted the withdrawal as an indication of Israel’s progress on the battlefield, and one thing it had lengthy predicted. Israeli officers have mentioned they might ultimately transfer most troops again to the strip’s perimeter and conduct temporary assaults on particular targets, as an alternative of finishing up large-scale floor maneuvers throughout broad areas.
The drawdown continues a course of that started in January and leaves the equal of a single brigade in all of Gaza, or fewer than 5,000 troops — down from roughly 50,000 on the peak of the battle in December.
The 98th Division’s operations in southern Gaza had been “extraordinarily spectacular,” the Israeli protection minister, Yoav Gallant, mentioned in a press release. “Their actions enabled the dismantling of Hamas as a functioning army unit on this space,” he added.
The remaining troops inside Gaza are largely guarding a buffer zone that Israel has created by destroying Palestinian buildings alongside the border, or are positioned alongside a slender land hall that splits northern Gaza, together with Gaza Metropolis, from the remainder of the territory.
Two journalists for The New York Occasions traveled alongside the hall final week, observing the way it features as a provide highway for troops, a barrier to displaced Gazans trying to maneuver again to north Gaza and a possible launchpad for future Israeli army operations in northern and central Gaza.
To critics of the army’s choice, the drawdown constitutes an Israeli failure. Regardless of mounting a marketing campaign that the native authorities say has killed greater than 33,000 and left Gaza in ruins and getting ready to famine, Israel is leaving many of the strip with out having achieved the objectives it set for itself after Hamas raided Israel on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 individuals and setting off the battle.
Hamas’s most senior leaders are nonetheless alive; a number of thousand Hamas fighters are nonetheless at massive; and roughly half of the hostages taken on Oct. 7 are nonetheless in Gaza. Israel’s withdrawal has left most of Gaza with out a practical administration, and the void could possibly be crammed as soon as extra by Hamas.
“Within the six months of battle, we failed to realize even a single one of many goals,” wrote Nahum Barnea, a outstanding Israeli commentator, in a column on Monday for the centrist information outlet Yediot Ahronot. “We didn’t destroy Hamas,” he added.
For Palestinians returning to their properties after the Israeli withdrawal, there was a way of horror as they grasped the size of destruction of their neighborhoods.
“Destruction is in every single place,” mentioned Akram Al-Satri, 47, a contract journalist who isn’t employed by The New York Occasions and who mentioned he returned on Monday morning to his wrecked neighborhood in Khan Younis.
“Individuals had been in search of their beloveds beneath the rubble; others had been in search of their belongings or something that they will use now,” Mr. Al-Satri mentioned in a cellphone interview. “I noticed individuals discovering decomposed human elements and making an attempt to acknowledge who they had been by their garments.”
Dr. Ahmad al-Farra, 54, who ran the pediatric ward at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis earlier than his household fled south to Rafah in January, mentioned his household went again to their three-story villa on Sunday and located it lowered to rubble, surrounded by a couple of timber that had been left standing in what was as soon as a lush backyard.
“I utterly collapsed and almost fainted,” he mentioned in a cellphone name on Monday, including that his spouse and two teenage daughters burst into tears.
“I labored for 20 years to construct this home,” Dr. al-Farra mentioned. “You construct a house nook by nook, stone by stone.”
“And ultimately,” he added, “with a press of a button, it’s lowered to rubble.”
He and others worry that Israel will ship floor troops into Rafah in pursuit of Hamas’s leaders and fighters as soon as the Muslim holy month of Ramadan ends this week.
“The goals of a whole household have disappeared into the air,” Dr. al-Farra mentioned. “The place will we go now? Will we spend the remainder of our lives residing in tents?”
To totally rout Hamas, Israel would want to comply with by on its promise to advance on Rafah, the place most of Hamas’s remaining fighters and army leaders are considered hiding.
Mr. Netanyahu faces intense strain from far-right members of his ruling coalition to proceed with the Rafah operation. A few of these lawmakers have threatened to break down Mr. Netanyahu’s coalition authorities ought to he name off a floor invasion, prompting elections that the prime minister might lose.
The prime minister can also be beneath rising worldwide strain, together with from President Biden, to withstand invading Rafah as a result of it could danger widespread hurt to civilians who’ve fled to the town because the battle started.
And Mr. Netanyahu faces a rising home backlash from Israelis who imagine he ought to safe the swift launch of the remaining hostages, even when it comes at the price of holding Hamas in energy.
The Biden administration mentioned Monday {that a} new cease-fire and hostage-release proposal had been introduced to Hamas.
“We actually need to come to closure on a hostage deal as quickly as doable,” John F. Kirby, a White Home nationwide safety spokesman, advised reporters He added {that a} deal would include “a cease-fire of some weeks length, hopefully round six weeks.”
Basem Naim, a Hamas spokesman, mentioned on Monday that the most recent proposal was “worse than the earlier ones.”
Amongst different sticking factors, he mentioned: “They don’t seem to be mentioning the withdrawal of troops from Gaza. They’re saying nothing on everlasting cease-fire.” There was “some progress,” he mentioned, on a proposal to permit displaced Gazans to return to their properties.
“This supply can’t be a place to begin to reaching a cease-fire settlement,” he mentioned in an interview.
Negotiations have stalled for months, largely as a result of Israel doesn’t need to comply with a truce that permits Hamas to stay answerable for any a part of Gaza, whereas Hamas is cautious of a deal that doesn’t present for the discharge of as many members as doable from Israeli prisons or that doesn’t guarantee its long-term survival.
Reporting was contributed by Hiba Yazbek, Abu Bakr Bashir, Johnatan Reiss and Katie Rogers.
