Details about the planned withdrawal come after Admiral Daniel Hagari, an IDF spokesman, said Sunday night that withdrawing the reservists “will significantly reduce the burden on the economy and allow them to accumulate strength for upcoming activities in the coming year.”
Israel's withdrawal from the five brigades could include several thousand soldiers, but Hajari pledged that “protracted fighting” would continue until 2024. Analysts said the move indicated the army may be shifting to a more targeted approach amid pressure from the United States and other countries over Region. Israel must mitigate civilian casualties resulting from its operations in Gaza.
A US official, speaking by phone, said: “This appears to be the beginning of the gradual shift to less intense operations in the north that we have been encouraging, which reflects the success that the IDF has achieved in dismantling Hamas’ military capabilities there.” On the condition of anonymity to discuss Israeli military operations.
The Israeli army refused to provide numbers about the number of forces that will be withdrawn.
Since Hamas militants attacked southern Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 people and taking about 240 hostage, according to Israeli officials. 21,978 people were killed and 57,697 injured in Gaza, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. The war led to the displacement of nearly two million people, who suffer from a lack of water, food, and medical care.
Reducing the number of forces in Gaza Charles D. said: Frelich, a senior fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies and former senior fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies and former advisor to Israel's Deputy National Security Advisor.
The United States supported Israel's war against Hamas with weapons and diplomacy, while urging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reduce the humanitarian losses resulting from the attack. Casualties in Gaza continued to mount, and relief organizations warned of an impending famine.
Hagari did not mention American pressure in his statement, citing instead the economic burden that the war imposed on the country. The large-scale mobilization of more than 300,000 reservists for Israel's war effort was a major blow to its workforce, especially in the high-tech sector. Economists interviewed by The Washington Post estimate that the war cost the government about $18 billion — or $220 million per day.
Hajjari said that the fighting has not stopped and will continue until 2024.
“But most of what can be achieved through high-intensity combat has been achieved,” Freilich said.
“Hamas has been hit hard but has not been destroyed or overthrown as a ruling body. This effort will continue through a different approach, a long-term approach,” he said. He added that this could include continued fighting in the city of Khan Yunis and a possible advance south to target tunnels between Gaza and Egypt.
In northern Israel, tensions continued on the border with Lebanon on Monday. The Israeli army said that missiles were fired at northern Israel, wounding five soldiers, and that they struck military targets in Lebanon. Hezbollah said three of its fighters were killed on Monday, Reuters reported, citing the group's Telegram account.
As the new year arrives in Gaza, civilians said they felt no let-up in the fighting.
“No one talks about the new year here in Gaza. “It's a luxury that no one here can afford now,” said one. The humanitarian worker in Rafah spoke on condition Anonymity because he is not authorized by his organization to speak.
Israeli strikes reverberated across Deir al-Balah, al-Maghazi and Khan Yunis in the early hours of the new year. Across the Strip, Gazans prepared for their morning routine, as they surveyed the full damage that occurred overnight.
On Monday, 36 years old Rafif Aziz was craving the homemade sweets she usually eats New Year's Day with her husband and children discussing their hopes For next year.
“Since yesterday hours, they have not stopped asking me about the sweets they are used to,” she said of her children while speaking to The Washington Post by phone from Deir al-Balah, a city in central Gaza where 80 of her relatives are taking refuge. In two small houses. “I didn't have an answer to give them.”
In 2023, Aziz has survived displacement, hunger, disease, bombs and siege under rubble.
She said: “All I hope now is for my children to forget all this pain that befell their little hearts, and that their coming days will be better, and that we can psychologically overcome everything we went through.”
Berger reported from Jerusalem. Lior Soroka and William Booth in Jerusalem, Shira Rubin in Tel Aviv, Hagar Harb in London, and Toulouse Olorniba in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, contributed to this report.
