Israeli army withdraws from Khan Younis
The 98th Division withdrew from the city after fighting that lasted 4 months, Army Radio reported
Jerusalem - Israeli media reported on Sunday that the Israeli army had withdrawn from the city of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.
“The 98th Division, with its three brigades, withdrew from Khan Younis last night after the end of the operation there after fighting that lasted four months,” the Army Radio reported. It added that there is only one brigade left in Gaza, the Nahal Brigade, which is responsible for securing the corridor established by the Israeli army to prevent Gazans from returning to the north.
Meanwhile, Palestinian sources told Anadolu that Israeli army forces retreated from all western areas of the city of Khan Younis while they remained stationed east of the city.
“As of this stage of the manoeuvre, the Israeli army has completed its operation in Khan Younis and soldiers have completed their exit from there,” the Israeli Channel 12 said.
“Forces consisting of four different brigades are now stationed in the humanitarian corridor and in the northern Gaza Strip in the Beit Hanoun area,” it said.
It indicated that ‘the Israeli army will focus on the method of raids based on available intelligence information’.
The channel did not rule out that the Israeli army’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip was to prepare soldiers for a ground operation in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.
The Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation said the manoeuvring Israeli forces withdrew from the Gaza Strip except for those in Gaza City to prevent the return of the Palestinians to the north.
The Israeli military ground operation began in Khan Younis on December 3 with the aim of recovering Israeli hostages held by the Hamas movement. However, based on the army’s claims, the Israeli forces left the city without achieving its goals.
38 killed over last 24 hours
At least 38 more Palestinians were killed and 71 others injured over the last 24 hours, as Israel continues its onslaught on the besieged Gaza Strip, the territory’s Health Ministry said on Sunday.
“The Israeli occupation (forces) committed four massacres against families in the
Gaza Strip, leaving 38 martyrs and 71 injured during the past 24 hours,” a ministry statement said. “Many people are still trapped under rubble and on the roads as rescuers are unable to reach them,” it added.
Flouting the International Court of Justice’s provisional ruling, Israel continues its onslaught on the Gaza Strip where at least 33,175 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, and 75,886 injured since October 7, 2023, according to Palestinian health authorities. Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by Hamas, which Tel Aviv says killed nearly 1,200 people.
The Israeli war on Gaza has pushed 85 per cent of the territory’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60 per cent of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.
Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.
Raids in West Bank
Meanwhile, Israeli army forces rounded up 45 more Palestinians in overnight raids in the occupied West Bank, according to prisoners’ affairs groups on Saturday.
The arrests included worshippers exiting the Al-aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem after observing Laylat al-qadr (Night of Decree), the holiest night for Muslims in the month of Ramadan, as well as others in the West Bank cities of Hebron, Jenin, Nablus, Tubas, Tulkarm, Ramallah, and Jericho, the Commission of Detainees’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner Society said in a joint statement.