Israel pulls some troops from Gaza to manage forces

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Israel will begin withdrawing some troops from Gaza this week, in the first significant reduction of its forces in the besieged enclave since the war with Hamas erupted almost three months ago.

The Israel Defense Forces said that five brigades — amounting to a few thousand troops — would be taken out of Gaza over the coming weeks for training and recuperation.

While the US has been urging Israel to move to a more targeted, lower-intensity phase of its war against Hamas, the IDF cast the troop reductions as part a practical step to manage forces through what it expects to be several more months of fighting.

Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, the IDF’s chief spokesman, said the withdrawal was designed to “significantly ease the burden on the [Israeli] economy and allow [troops] to gather strength for the upcoming activities in the next year, as the fighting will continue and they will still be required”.

He added the move was part of planning and preparations for the months to come, taking account of the requirements “for additional tasks and warfare throughout this year”.

Israel mobilised about 360,000 soldiers in response to Hamas’s surprise attack on October 7, during which militants killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli officials, and took another 240 hostage.

After initially bombarding Gaza for three weeks, Israel then launched a devastating ground offensive in the territory. The assault has killed more than 21,800 people, according to Palestinian officials, left hundreds of thousands homeless, and reduced huge swaths of the enclave to rubble.

The fighting continued to rage on Monday, with Israeli forces engaged in battles with Hamas in Khan Younis as well as in other areas in the centre of the strip.

The UN’s humanitarian arm, OCHA, said that 1.9mn of Gaza’s 2.3mn population had now been displaced, with many fleeing to the…