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Israel-Gaza latest: IDF confirms 'decline in forces' in southern Gaza - BBC News Israel-Gaza latest: IDF confirms 'decline in forces' in southern Gaza - BBC News
(32 minutes later)
Sebastian Usher
Middle East analyst, in Jerusalem
On the surface, the announcement that Israel has pulled all Half a year on from the start of the Israel-Gaza war, the death
but one brigade out of Gaza would seem to suggest a noteworthy shift in the toll in Gaza is rising day by day.
Israeli army's strategy there. But it may not presage any major In the Israeli military campaign that followed the 7 October
change. Hamas attacks more than 33,000 Palestinians, mainly women and children, have
Israel has previously withdrawn other troops when their military been killed, according to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry.
objective is judged to have been completed. Alma Jaroor, 12, was buried under the rubble of a five-storey
An army statement building for more than three hours after the building she was in was bombed.
said the 98th commando division had left Gaza in order to "recuperate and Relatives say the building where they were sleeping was
prepare for future operations". The military stressed that a "significant brought down by an Israeli air strike. The Israeli army told the BBC in March it
force" remains in Gaza, with the ability to preserve the Israel Defense Forces' "freedom of could not comment on this claim without co-ordinates for the building.
action".
That sends a message that the pull-out is tactical and does not Her entire immediate family were killed by her side - her parents Mohammed, 35, and Naeema, 38; brothers Ghanem, 14, Kinan, 6, and Tarazan, 18 months; and sister Reehab, 11.
suggest the war may be moving closer to its end. But a military operation that "We were happy together as a family," Alma told the BBC last month, speaking from Rafah where she was sheltering with her uncle and his family.
focuses on narrower targets may lessen the likelihood of heavy civilian We used to hug each other when we were scared. I wish I could hold them all. I didn't have enough time with them."
casualties.
That is something that Israel's closest and most powerful
ally, the US, has been applying increasing pressure on the Israeli government
to do.
The US would certainly be
extremely concerned if the move proved to be related to the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's repeatedly stated intention to mount an operation against Hamas in the southernmost Gazan town of Rafah, where more than one million displaced Palestinians have taken refuge.
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