• Troops leave to ‘prepare for more operations, including in Rafah’
• Netanyahu claims they are ‘one step from victory’
• Protesters in Tel Aviv demand ‘elections now’
• Aid agencies decry ‘shocking’ toll six months into war

GAZA STRIP: Israel pulled its ground forces out of the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday, media reports said, in a partial withdrawal six months into the devastating war started on October 7.

The news of the partial withdrawal came on the day talks towards a truce and prisoners release deal were expected to resume in Cairo, including US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators.

CIA chief Bill Burns and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani will join Egyptian officials for indirect talks from Sunday between the Israeli and Hamas delegations, Egypt’s Al-Qahera News said.

But the military said a “significant force” will keep operating elsewhere in the besieged Palestinian territory, able “to conduct precise intelligence based operations”.

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was just “one step away from victory” and vowed there would be no let-up in fighting until Hamas releases all prisoners.

Speaking as new truce talks were due to be held in Cairo, he told his cabinet that “there will be no ceasefire without the return of prisoners. It just won’t happen.”

Netanyahu stressed that “Israel is ready for a deal; Israel is not ready to surrender”.

Meanwhile, air strikes kept pounding Khan Yunis and Rafah during the night, eyewitnesses said.

More operations

Israeli troops that have pulled out of Gaza on Sunday did so to prepare for future operations, including in the enclave’s southern city of Rafah, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said.

“The forces are exiting and preparing for their next missions, we saw examples of such missions in the Shifa operation, and also of their coming mission in the Rafah area,” Gallant said at a meeting with military officials, according to a statement from his office.

Netanyahu has meanwhile come under intense pressure at home from families and supporters of prisoners, and from a resurgent anti-government protest movement.

Ten of thousands rallied in Tel Aviv and other cities on Saturday, demanding “elections now”.

Among the protesters was Israel’s centrist opposition leader Yair Lapid, who was later headed to Washington, his Yesh Atid party said.

Aid agencies decry ‘shocking’ toll

Separately, United Nations agencies and other aid organisations decried on Sunday the devastating toll wreaked by six months of war in Gaza, warning that the situation is “beyond catastrophic”.

“Six months is an awful milestone,” the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said, warning that “humanity has been all but abandoned”.

World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus voiced outrage at “the deaths and grievous injuries of thousands of children in Gaza”, which he said would “remain a stain on all of humanity”.

“This assault on present and future generations must end.” Unicef chief Catherine Russell pointed out that more than 13,000 children were reportedly among those killed.

The UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths insisted on Saturday that there needed to be “a reckoning for this betrayal of humanity”.

The IFRC chief Jagan Chapagain meanwhile described the situation as “beyond catastrophic”, with “millions of lives are at risk of hunger.”

Published in Dawn, April 8th, 2024