Thousands of Israeli soldiers moved out of Gaza in first significant drawdown of war
Thousands of Israeli soldiers are being moved out of the Gaza Strip, the military has said, marking the first significant drawdown of troops since the war began.
Israel also pulled tanks out of some Gaza City districts, residents said, in what the US said was a shift to different military tactics in northern Gaza.
The US, Israel’s chief ally, has pressured the country in recent weeks to switch to lower-intensity fighting.
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Five brigades, totalling several thousand troops, will be taken out of the enclave in the coming weeks for training and rest, the IDF said.
But fierce fighting continued in other areas of Gaza, especially the southern city of Khan Younis and central areas of the territory.
Israeli army spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari did not say whether the decision means Israel is launching a new phase of the war.
“The objectives of the war require prolonged fighting, and we are preparing accordingly,” he said.
Mark Regev, an adviser to Mr Netanyahu, described the war against Hamas as a “marathon” and spoke of the need to take troops out to rest them.
He told Sky News: “We have to be able to rotate our troops in and out as is needed.”
News of the drawdown came ahead of a visit by US secretary of state Antony Blinken to the region and after the Biden administration bypassed Congress for the second time this month to approve an emergency weapons sale to Israel.
Antony Blinken with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem in January 2023
Israel has vowed to charge ahead until its war aims have been achieved, including dismantling Hamas, which has ruled Gaza for 16 years.
Israel responded to the Hamas attack on 7 October with a blistering air, ground and sea offensive that has killed more than 21,800 people in Gaza, two-thirds of them women and children, according to the health ministry in Gaza.
The war has displaced some 85% of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents, sending hordes of people seeking shelter in Israeli-designated safe areas that the military has nevertheless bombed.
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There were several other developments in the Israel-Hamas war as New Year’s Day came to a close:
• Hezbollah said four of its fighters were killed in southern Lebanon;
• Also in Lebanon, the Israeli military said it struck Hezbollah targets and that five soldiers were wounded by cross-border fire;
• Hamas fired a large barrage of rockets towards Israel, including its commercial hub Tel Aviv, as the clock struck midnight on New Year’s Eve;
• Israel’s defence minister says some communities that had been evacuated to the north of the Gaza Strip will be able to return soon;
• The US Navy said it will end the deployment of the Gerald R Ford aircraft carrier in the Middle East which started after the 7 October attack.
Israel has approved a plan to capture all of the Gaza Strip and remain there for an unspecified length of time, Israeli officials say.
According to Reuters, the plan includes distributing aid, though supplies will not be let in yet.
The Israeli official told the agency that the newly approved offensive plan would move Gaza’s civilian population southward and keep humanitarian aid from falling into Hamas’s hands.
On Sunday, the United Nations rejected what it said was a new plan for aid to be distributed in what it described as Israeli hubs.
Israeli cabinet ministers approved plans for the new offensive on Monday morning, hours after it was announced that tens of thousands of reserve soldiers are being called up.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far failed to achieve his goal of destroying Hamas or returning all the hostages, despite more than a year of brutal war in Gaza.
Palestinian children struggle to get donated food at a community kitchen in Khan Younis, Gaza. Pic: AP
Officials say the plan will help with these war aims but it would also push hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to southern Gaza, exacerbating an already dire humanitarian crisis.
They said the plan included the “capturing of the strip and the holding of territories”.
It would also try to prevent Hamas from distributing humanitarian aid, which Israel says strengthens the group’s rule in Gaza.
The UN rejected the plan, saying it would leave large parts of the population, including the most vulnerable, without supplies.
It said it “appears designed to reinforce control over life-sustaining items as a pressure tactic – as part of a military strategy”.
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More than 52,000 Palestinians have been killed since the IDF launched its ground offensive in the densely-populated territory, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
It followed the deadly Hamas attacks on Israel, which killed 1,200 people and saw around 250 people taken hostage.
A fragile ceasefire that saw a pause in the fighting and the exchange of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners collapsed earlier this year.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to retaliate against the Houthis and their Iranian “masters” after the group launched a missile attack on the country’s main international airport.
A missile fired by the group from Yemen landed near Ben Gurion Airport, causing panic among passengers in the terminal building.
“Attacks by the Houthis emanate from Iran,” Mr Netanyahu wrote on X. “Israel will respond to the Houthi attack against our main airport AND, at a time and place of our choosing, to their Iranian terror masters.”
Israeli police officers investigate the missile crater. Pic: Reuters
The missile impact left a plume of smoke and briefly halted flights and commuter traffic at the airport. Some international carriers have cancelled flights to and from Tel Aviv for several days.
Four people were lightly wounded, paramedic service Magen David Adom said.
Air raid sirens went off across Israel and footage showed passengers yelling and rushing for cover.
The attack came hours before senior Israeli cabinet ministers were set to vote on whether to intensify the country’s military operations in the Gaza Strip, and as the army began calling up thousands of reserves in anticipation of a wider operation in the enclave.
Houthi military spokesperson Brigadier General Yahya Saree said the group fired a hypersonic ballistic missile at the airport.
Iran’s defence minister later told a state TV broadcaster that if the country was attacked by the US or Israel, it would target their bases, interests and forces where necessary.
Israel’s military said several attempts to intercept the missile were unsuccessful.
Air, road and rail traffic were halted after the attack, police said, though it resumed around an hour later.
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Yemen’s Houthis have been firing missiles at Israel since its war with Hamas in Gaza began on 7 October 2023, and while most have been intercepted, some have penetrated the country’s missile defence systems and caused damage.
Israel has previously struck the group in Yemen in retaliation and the US and UK have also launched strikes after the Houthis began attacking international shipping, saying it was in solidarity with Palestinians over Israel’s war with Hamas.
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