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The Israeli navy’s departure from southern Gaza over the weekend has left the devastated territory in a state of suspense as lively preventing there receded on Monday to its lowest ebb since a quick truce with Hamas in November.
But whilst some observers hoped Israel’s withdrawal from the world 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 part, one wherein Israel would proceed to mount small-scale operations throughout Gaza to forestall Hamas’s resurgence. That technique, they mentioned, may occupy a center floor between reaching an enduring truce with Hamas and ordering a serious floor assault into Rafah, Hamas’s final stronghold in southern Gaza the place multiple million of 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 in search of “whole victory over Hamas.”
“This victory requires coming into Rafah and eliminating the terrorist battalions there,” Mr. Netanyahu mentioned. “This 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 another Palestinian management, Israel has left behind an influence vacuum in Gaza, wherein Hamas may regroup and re-emerge as a navy pressure throughout a lot of the territory.
The Israeli navy 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 accordance 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’d 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 vast 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 have been “extraordinarily spectacular,” the Israeli protection minister, Yoav Gallant, mentioned in a press release. “Their actions enabled the dismantling of Hamas as a functioning navy unit on this space,” 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 slender land hall that splits northern Gaza, together with Gaza City, from the remainder of the territory.
Two journalists for The New York Times traveled alongside the hall final week, observing the way it capabilities as a provide street for troops, a barrier to displaced Gazans making an attempt 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 resolution, the drawdown constitutes an Israeli failure. Despite 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 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 giant; and roughly half of the hostages taken on Oct. 7 are nonetheless in Gaza. Israel’s withdrawal has left most of Gaza and not using a practical administration, and the void may very well be stuffed as soon as extra by Hamas.
“In the six months of battle, we failed to attain even a single one of many goals,” wrote Nahum Barnea, a distinguished 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 houses after the Israeli withdrawal, there was a way of horror as they grasped the dimensions of destruction of their neighborhoods.
“Destruction is all over the place,” mentioned Akram Al-Satri, 47, a contract journalist who isn’t employed by The New York Times and who mentioned he returned on Monday morning to his wrecked neighborhood in Khan Younis.
“People have been on the lookout for their beloveds below the rubble; others have been on the lookout for their belongings or something that they’ll use now,” Mr. Al-Satari mentioned in a cellphone interview. “I noticed individuals discovering decomposed human components and attempting to acknowledge who they have 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 decreased to rubble, surrounded by just a few timber that have 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 in the long run,” he added, “with a press of a button, it’s decreased 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 complete household have disappeared into the air,” Dr. al-Farra mentioned. “Where will we go now? Will we spend the remainder of our lives residing in tents?”
To totally rout Hamas, Israel would want to observe by means of on its promise to advance on Rafah, the place most of Hamas’s remaining fighters and navy leaders are regarded as hiding.
Mr. Netanyahu faces intense stress from far-right members of his ruling coalition to proceed with the Rafah operation. Some 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 may lose.
The prime minister can also be below rising worldwide stress, together with from President Biden, to withstand invading Rafah as a result of it might danger widespread hurt to civilians who’ve fled to the town for the reason that battle 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 mentioned Monday {that a} new cease-fire and hostage-release proposal had been offered to Hamas.
“We actually need to come to closure on a hostage deal as quickly as attainable,” John F. Kirby, a White House nationwide safety spokesman, informed reporters He added {that a} deal would include “a cease-fire of some weeks period, hopefully round six weeks.”
Basem Naim, a Hamas spokesman, mentioned on Monday that the most recent proposal was “worse than the earlier ones.”
Among different sticking factors, he mentioned: “They should not mentioning the withdrawal of troops from Gaza. They are saying nothing on everlasting cease-fire.” There has been “some progress,” he mentioned, on a proposal to permit displaced Gazans to return to their houses.
“This provide 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 in control of any a part of Gaza, whereas Hamas is cautious of a deal that doesn’t present for the discharge of as many members as attainable 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.
