The Israeli navy’s departure from southern Gaza over the weekend has left the devastated territory in a state of suspense as energetic combating there receded on Monday to its lowest ebb since a brief truce with Hamas in November.
However whilst some observers hoped Israel’s withdrawal from the realm would possibly portend a brand new cease-fire, each Hamas and Israeli officers prompt the conflict was not but over.
Analysts stated the withdrawal of Israeli troops prompt solely that the conflict had entered a brand new part, one by which Israel would proceed to mount small-scale operations throughout Gaza to forestall Hamas’s resurgence. That technique, they stated, 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 a couple of million Palestinians have taken refuge.
In an announcement on Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel stated that whereas Israel was nonetheless pursuing a deal to safe the discharge of its hostages in Gaza, it was additionally looking for “total victory over Hamas.”
“This victory requires entering Rafah and eliminating the terrorist battalions there,” Mr. Netanyahu stated. “This will happen; there is 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 navy pressure throughout a lot of the territory.
The Israeli navy said on Sunday that its 98th Division had left Khan Younis in southern Gaza so as “to recuperate and prepare for future operations.” That leaves no Israeli troops actively maneuvering in southern Gaza, in accordance with two officers briefed on the matter who weren’t licensed 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 stated they might finally transfer most troops again to the strip’s perimeter and conduct transient assaults on particular targets, as an alternative of finishing up large-scale floor maneuvers throughout large 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 conflict in December.
The 98th Division’s operations in southern Gaza have been “extremely impressive,” the Israeli protection minister, Yoav Gallant, stated in an announcement. “Their activities enabled the dismantling of Hamas as a functioning military unit in this area,” he added.
The remaining troops inside Gaza are principally guarding a buffer zone that Israel has created by destroying Palestinian buildings alongside the border, or are positioned alongside a slim land hall that splits northern Gaza, together with Gaza Metropolis, from the remainder of the territory.
Two journalists for The New York Instances traveled alongside the hall final week, observing the way it capabilities as a provide street for troops, a barrier to displaced Gazans trying to maneuver again to north Gaza and a possible launchpad for future Israeli navy operations in northern and central Gaza.
To critics of the navy’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 a lot of the strip with out having achieved the targets it set for itself after Hamas raided Israel on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 folks and setting off the conflict.
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 no useful administration, and the void may very well be crammed as soon as extra by Hamas.
“In the six months of war, we failed to achieve even a single one of the objectives,” wrote Nahum Barnea, a distinguished Israeli commentator, in a column on Monday for the centrist information outlet Yediot Ahronot. “We did not destroy Hamas,” he added.
For Palestinians returning to their houses after the Israeli withdrawal, there was a way of horror as they grasped the size of destruction of their neighborhoods.
“Destruction is everywhere,” stated Akram Al-Satri, 47, a contract journalist who isn’t employed by The New York Instances and who stated he returned on Monday morning to his wrecked neighborhood in Khan Younis.
“People were looking for their beloveds under the rubble; others were looking for their belongings or anything that they can use now,” Mr. Al-Satri stated in a cellphone interview. “I saw people finding decomposed human parts and trying to recognize who they were by their clothes.”
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, stated his household went again to their three-story villa on Sunday and located it lowered to rubble, surrounded by a couple of timber that have been left standing in what was as soon as a lush backyard.
“I completely collapsed and nearly fainted,” he stated in a cellphone name on Monday, including that his spouse and two teenage daughters burst into tears.
“I worked for 20 years to build this house,” Dr. al-Farra stated. “You build a home corner by corner, stone by stone.”
“And in the end,” he added, “with a press of a button, it is reduced 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 dreams of an entire family have disappeared into the air,” Dr. al-Farra stated. “Where will we go now? Will we spend the rest of our lives living in tents?”
To totally rout Hamas, Israel would wish to comply with via on its promise to advance on Rafah, the place most of Hamas’s remaining fighters and navy 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 below rising worldwide strain, together with from President Biden, to withstand invading Rafah as a result of it will threat widespread hurt to civilians who’ve fled to the town because the conflict started.
And Mr. Netanyahu faces a rising home backlash from Israelis who consider he ought to safe the swift launch of the remaining hostages, even when it comes at the price of protecting Hamas in energy.
The Biden administration stated Monday {that a} new cease-fire and hostage-release proposal had been introduced to Hamas.
“We really want to come to closure on a hostage deal as soon as possible,” John F. Kirby, a White Home nationwide safety spokesman, informed reporters He added {that a} deal would include “a cease-fire of some weeks duration, hopefully around six weeks.”
Basem Naim, a Hamas spokesman, stated on Monday that the newest proposal was “worse than the previous ones.”
Amongst different sticking factors, he stated: “They are not mentioning the withdrawal of troops from Gaza. They are saying nothing on permanent cease-fire.” There was “some progress,” he stated, on a proposal to permit displaced Gazans to return to their houses.
“This offer cannot be a starting point to reaching a cease-fire agreement,” he stated in an interview.
Negotiations have stalled for months, largely as a result of Israel doesn’t wish to comply with a truce that permits Hamas to stay accountable 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 potential 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.
