Israel has withdrawn its forces from the southern Gaza Strip, especially from the town of Khan Yunis, after months of fighting against the Palestinian Hamas movement, the Israeli army and Israeli media said on Sunday.
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“Today, Sunday, April 7, the 98th Commando Division of the Israeli army completed its mission in Khan Yunis. The division left the Gaza Strip for […] “To prepare for future operations,” the army said in a statement sent to Agence France-Presse.
The army explained that a “large force” would continue to operate in the small Palestinian territories according to its strategic needs.
His statement stated, “A large force led by the 162nd Division and the Nahal Brigade continues to work in the Gaza Strip to ensure the army's freedom of action and its ability to carry out precise operations based on intelligence information.”
The Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz says that the infantry withdrawal from the southern Gaza Strip is due to the fact that the army achieved its goals there.
According to a military official quoted by the newspaper, who is often considered more left-wing than most general dailies, “We no longer need to remain in the strategic sector unnecessarily.”
“The 98th Division dismantled the Hamas brigades in Khan Yunis and killed thousands of its members. We did everything we had to do there.”
Palestinians displaced from Khan Yunis – just part of the displaced – can now return to their homes after finding refuge in Rafah, located further south near the border with Egypt, according to this soldier.
On Sunday, an Agence France-Presse photographer saw dozens of people leaving Rafah towards Khan Yunis on foot, in cars, or on donkey carts.
Khan Yunis, a large city in the southern Gaza Strip, has been the scene for several months of continuous air strikes and fierce fighting between Hamas forces and the Israeli army.
Attention is now focused on Rafah, where Israel, despite the concerns of many foreign capitals, has said it is intent on launching a ground offensive while more than 1.5 million Gazans have found refuge there.
The Gaza war broke out after the unprecedented attack launched by Hamas on Israeli territory on October 7, which resulted in the killing of more than 1,170 people, most of them civilians, according to a census conducted by Agence France-Presse based on figures from Israeli officials.
At least 33,175 people, most of them women and children, were killed in the Israeli military retaliation campaign, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza, which has been controlled by Hamas since 2007.
