TROOPS PULL OUT OF CITY AHEAD OF ‘NEXT MISSION’
Israeli division leaves and some Palestinian residents return to the ruins of Khan Younis, while peace talks in Cairo seen making ‘significant progress’
Israeli leaders are preparing for military operations in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah, where most of the Palestinian territory’s population has fled after six months of fighting.
Israel’s 98th commando division withdrew from Khan Younis “in order to recuperate and prepare for future operations”, the army said.
A military spokesperson did not give details on the numbers of soldiers involved, but Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said troops had left the city of Khan Younis “to prepare for future missions, including … in Rafah”.
International pressure has mounted on Israel to bring an end to the war, with its main ally the United States last week demanding a ceasefire and hostage release deal along with ramped-up aid deliveries.
Talks in Cairo aimed at brokering a truce meanwhile have made “significant progress”, with more negotiations expected in the coming days, Egyptian state-linked media outlet Al-Qahera reported yesterday, citing a high-ranking Egyptian source.
It added that Qatari and Hamas delegations had left Cairo and were expected to return “within two days to finalise the terms of the agreement”, while the US and Israeli delegations were due to leave “in the next few hours” and consultations were expected to continue over the next 48 hours, it added.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu separately said Israel was “one step away from victory”. In a speech to mark six months since Hamas’ attack, Netanyahu told his cabinet that “Israel is ready for a deal”, adding that “there will be no ceasefire without the return of hostages”.
Netanyahu has come under heightened pressure from US President Joe Biden – whose administration is Israel’s top arms supplier and political backer – to end the war and improve the humanitarian situation.
Vast areas of Gaza have been turned into a rubble-strewn wasteland, with damage estimated at US$18.5 billion to critical infrastructure, mostly housing, a World Bank report said.
Charities have accused Israel of blocking aid, but Israel has blamed shortages on aid organisations’ inability to distribute assistance once it gets in.
“The denial of basic needs – food, fuel, sanitation, shelter, security and healthcare – is inhumane and intolerable,” World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on social media platform X.
Medical supplies were delivered for the first time through Israel’s Erez border point with northern Gaza, TV footage showed.
After troops left areas in and around the largely destroyed Khan Younis, a stream of displaced Palestinians walked there, hoping to return to their homes from temporary shelters in Rafah, a little further south.
Muhammad Yunis, 51, a Palestinian in northern Gaza, saw nothing but loss.
“Isn’t the bombing, death and destruction enough?” he asked. “There are bodies still under the rubble. We can smell the stench.”
Maha Thaer, a mother of four returning to Khan Younis, said she would move back into her badly damaged flat, “even though it is not suitable for living, but it is better than tents”.
In Israel, people gathered on Sunday at the site of the Nova desert music festival to pay tribute to the young revellers who died or were kidnapped there on October 7. At the festival alone, 364 people were killed. In Jerusalem, thousands gathered outside Israel’s parliament to demand the return of the hostages.
The war in Gaza has raised fears that conflict could engulf the wider region.
An adviser to Iran’s supreme leader warned on Sunday that Israeli embassies were “no longer safe” after a strike in Syria that Tehran blamed on Israel killed seven Revolutionary Guards members.
Israeli defence chief Gallant said Sunday the army had “finished all its preparations to react to any scenario that could arise regarding Iran”.
The Israeli army said it had reached “another phase” of preparation for war on its northern border with Lebanon, where it has spent months exchanging fire with Iran-backed Hezbollah.
Early yesterday, Israeli fighter jets hit the village of al-Sultaniyah and killed a field commander in Hezbollah’s elite Radwan units and two other people, the Israeli military and two Lebanese security sources said. The Israeli military identified the commander as Ali Ahmed Hassin.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels, also backed by Iran, said they had targeted a British ship and two Israeli vessels, after a British maritime security firm reported three separate attacks off Yemen’s coast in less than 24 hours.