Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was “just one step away from victory.”
Israeli officials said on Sunday they were preparing for a military operation in Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost tip, in a “long war” that has been going on for six months and has destroyed buildings and lives.
Israel withdrew its troops from the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday, a partial withdrawal half a year after Hamas militants launched an attack on Israel on October 7.
But Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant said the troops left the city of Khan Younis after months of fighting “to prepare for future missions, including… in Rafah.”
World leaders expressed alarm at the prospect of an invasion of the city near the Egyptian border, where much of Gaza’s population has taken refuge.
“The war in Gaza continues and we are far from stopping,” said Israeli military chief of staff Hertz Halevi. “This is a long war with varying intensities.”
After the army left the heavily destroyed city of Khan Younis and its surrounding areas, a group of displaced Palestinians headed there on foot, hoping to return home from temporary shelters in Rafah, slightly further south.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was “just one step away from victory.”
Muhammad Yunis, 51, a Palestinian in northern Gaza, has seen only losses.
“Isn’t bombing, death and destruction enough?” he asked. “There are still bodies under the rubble. We can smell the stench.”
On the day that ceasefire agreement negotiations resumed in Cairo, Netanyahu also emphasized that “if the hostages are not returned, there will be no ceasefire.”
He faces intense pressure at home from the families and supporters of militant prisoners and a resurgent anti-government protest movement.
-“inhuman”-
“Israel is ready for a deal,” Israeli data showed. Netanyahu told the cabinet in a speech marking six months after a Hamas attack killed 1,170 people, mostly civilians. Israel also Not ready to surrender.”
Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants have also taken more than 250 Israeli and foreign hostages, of which 129 remain in Gaza, 34 of whom the military said were dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 33,175 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Health Ministry of the Hamas-controlled territory.
Israel faces growing global opposition in the war, after an Israeli drone strike on April 1 killed seven aid workers, most of them Westerners, at the U.S. food charity World Central Kitchen. , the outcry intensified.
A World Bank report said that large areas of Gaza have been turned into rubble-strewn wastelands, with damage to critical infrastructure (mainly housing) estimated at $18.5 billion.
Charities have accused Israel of blocking aid, but Israel has defended its efforts and blamed the shortfall on aid organizations’ inability to distribute the aid once it came in.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on X (formerly Twitter): “Deprivation of basic needs – food, fuel, sanitation, shelter, safety and health care — are inhumane and intolerable.”
Netanyahu is under intense pressure from the United States, Israel’s top ally, to work toward a ceasefire and hostage agreement and allow more aid into the territory.
AFP footage showed medical supplies being delivered for the first time through Israel’s Erez border point with northern Gaza.
Khan Younis is the hometown of Hamas Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar, whom Israel accuses of being the mastermind of the October 7 attack.
Israel’s “98th Commando Division” left the city and Gaza “in order to recuperate and prepare for future operations,” the Israeli army told AFP.
– U.S. pressure –
Israeli security expert Omar Dostri predicted that “within two months Rafah will move to destroy the remaining Hamas brigades” as more displaced Palestinians leave the densely populated Rafah.
The partial withdrawal comes as talks on a truce and hostage release deal involving U.S., Qatari and Egyptian mediators are expected to resume in Cairo.
U.S. President Joe Biden told Netanyahu on Thursday that he hoped for a ceasefire and hostage release agreement, as well as increased aid delivery.
The Biden administration, Israel’s largest arms supplier and political backer, has also suggested that U.S. support for Israel is conditional on reducing the killing of civilians and improving humanitarian conditions after the deaths of seven aid workers.
Hours after Biden’s comments, Netanyahu said Israel would allow “temporary” aid to flow through Erez and Ashdod.
Maha Tell, a mother of four who returned to Khan Younis, said she would move back to her badly damaged apartment, which “is not suitable for living but is better than a tent.”
– ‘stay strong’ –
In Israel, people gathered at the Nova Desert music festival on Sunday to pay tribute to young revelers who died or were kidnapped there on October 7.
364 people were killed during the festival alone.
In Jerusalem, thousands gathered outside the Israeli parliament to demand the return of the hostages.
“You’re still out there, stay strong,” former hostage Agam Goldstein, 17, shouted through tears.
Calls for the hostages’ release were also heard in Paris, where about 1,500 people demonstrated on Sunday, police said.
The night before, tens of thousands of people rallied for “Elections Now” in Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities. They were joined by family members and supporters of the Gaza hostages.
Sunday also served as a reminder that war could spread.
An adviser to Iran’s supreme leader has warned that the Israeli embassy is “no longer safe” following an attack in Syria that Tehran blames on Israel that killed seven members of the Revolutionary Guards.
The Israeli army said preparations for war on its northern border with Lebanon, where it has been fighting Iran-backed Hezbollah for months, have entered “another phase.”
Yemen’s Houthi rebels, also backed by Iran, said they had targeted three other ships with missiles in surrounding waters crucial to world trade.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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