Gradual transition to new Gaza operation phase: Israel
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Israel will gradually transition to the next phase of its operations in Gaza in which the local population will likely be able to first return to the north of the coastal strip, the country’s defence minister says.
“I can tell you that soon we will be able to distinguish between different areas in Gaza,” Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said in a joint news conference with his US counterpart Lloyd Austin in Tel Aviv.
“In every area where we achieve our mission we will be able to transition gradually to the next phase and start working on bringing back the local population,” Gallant said.
“That means that it can be achieved maybe sooner in the north rather than in the south.”
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that he was not in Israel to dictate any timeline or terms for Israel’s military campaign but he did discuss making the transition to lower intensity operations.
“That doesn’t signal an end to the operation. It sometimes means that you’re being more precise, you’re being more focused on a specific target set,” he said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to achieve total victory over Gaza’s ruling Hamas militants, who killed 1200 people and took 240 hostages in a surprise October 7 raid into Israel, according to Israeli tallies.
The war has left the Gaza Strip largely in ruins and killed about 19,000 Palestinians, according to health authorities.
Food is running scarce for the territory’s 2.3 million people, basic services have collapsed and most people are homeless.
In the latest bombardments, 90 Palestinians died in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza on Sunday, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
Hamas Aqsa radio reported an attack on Gaza’s main hospital, Al Shifa.
In Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, medics said 12 Palestinians had been killed and dozens wounded while in Rafah in the south, an Israeli air strike on a house left at least four people dead.
An Israeli tank shell hit the maternity building inside Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, killing a 13-year-old girl who had lost a leg in a previous hit, the Gaza health ministry said.
On the Israeli side, the military released the names of four more soldiers killed in combat in Gaza, making it 126 dead in the strip since its ground invasion began in late October.
CIA chief Bill Burns was expected to meet Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and the head of Israel’s Mossad spy agency in Warsaw on Monday to discuss a potential new deal to secure the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas, two US officials told Reuters.
Both officials spoke on customary condition of anonymity.
Earlier, the Axios news website had reported the meeting would take place, citing two US and Israeli officials.
Netanyahu appeared to confirm on Saturday that new negotiations were under way to recover hostages held by Hamas after a source said Israel’s intelligence chief met the prime minister of Qatar, a country mediating in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
A source with knowledge of the matter said that Mossad head David Barnea met Al Thani in Europe late on Friday.
Hamas official Osama Hamdan reiterated on Monday the group’s position that any negotiations on a hostage exchange were off the table until Israel stops its war on Gaza.
“We are open to initiatives from Qatar and Egypt about a hostage exchange that would stop the war in Gaza,” Hamdan told a press conference in Beirut.
Reuters
