Israel has pulled all of its ground troops out of southern Gaza for “tactical reasons”, the country’s army has said, raising questions about the future direction of the war as Hamas and Israeli delegations travel to Egypt for a new round of ceasefire talks.

Two brigades will stay in the northern half of the Gaza Strip and the new corridor that now bifurcates the Palestinian territory at Wadi Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces said on Sunday, in order to “preserve the IDF’s freedom of action and its ability to conduct precise intelligence based-operations”.

It is believed the drawdown is primarily to relieve reservists after nearly four months of intense fighting in the decimated southern city of Khan Younis, rather than any significant shift in strategy.

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    • Rapidcreek@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Gotta look at trends. So far since the pressure…

      • Port of Ashdod opened for aid

      • Erez crossing opened for aid

      • Entire 98th Division withdrew from Gaza (here)

      • Israel’s war cabinet expanded mandate of negotiating team in hostage deal talks

      • 322 humanitarian trucks entered Gaza today, a record

    • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Imagine that. Biden had it in his power to change what Israel does after all.

      Wonder what other times centrists have said he’s powerless when he isn’t.

      • jeffw@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        I don’t know that anyone really believed he couldn’t do it. The issue is around what happens with your allies or political repercussions at home

        • Rapidcreek@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          As with all foreign relations, it’s a fluid situation. What can work today, may not be able to work yesterday.

    • jonne@infosec.pub
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      7 months ago

      About 6 months late, and after all the ‘serious people’ assured us things aren’t just that simple. I guess late is better than nothing.

  • psmgx@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    The “tactical” reason is that the US threatened to shut down its aid program.

  • XTL@sopuli.xyz
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    7 months ago

    Tactical reason can be fired once the troops are at a safe distance.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    7 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    Israel has pulled all of its ground troops out of southern Gaza for “tactical reasons”, the country’s army has said, raising questions about the future direction of the war as Hamas and Israeli delegations travel to Egypt for a new round of ceasefire talks.

    But the timing of the announcement coincides with the beginning of a round of mediated talks in Cairo, the Egyptian capital, aimed at securing a second truce and hostage release deal, and is being received as a positive sign that the latest negotiations, after much faltering, may finally bear fruit.

    The CIA director, Bill Burns, is also expected to attend the talks, which will begin on Sunday evening, alongside the Qatari foreign minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.

    The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who is under growing international pressure over his forces’ conduct in Gaza and the desperate humanitarian situation, said on Sunday that Israel would not give into Hamas’s “extreme” demands or agree to any ceasefire until the remaining hostages were released.

    Hamas, the militant group that seized control of Gaza in 2007, triggered the bloodiest war in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict with an unprecedented cross-border offensive on 7 October, in which they killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted another 250, according to official Israeli tallies.

    Famine is “projected and imminent” in the northern half of Gaza, a UN-backed report said last month, and according to Oxfam the number of people facing “catastrophic levels” of hunger has nearly doubled since December.


    The original article contains 880 words, the summary contains 250 words. Saved 72%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!