Israel evacuated additional troops from southern Gaza on Sunday, leaving only a single division in the territory as the country faces mounting pressure from the US and around the world to improve humanitarian circumstances in the region.
“Today, Sunday April 7th, the IDF’s 98th commando division has concluded its mission in Khan Yunis. The division left the Gaza strip in order to recuperate and prepare for future operations,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement. “A significant force led by the 162nd division and the Nahal brigade continues to operate in the Gaza strip, and will preserve the IDF’s freedom of action and its ability to conduct precise intelligence-based operations.”
Israel has been reducing troop personnel in Gaza since the beginning of 2024 in an effort to relieve reservists. Six months of war have put a burden on both the military and the economy. Many Israeli security analysts believe Iran-backed Hezbollah poses a larger threat in Lebanon.
The army departure comes as Israel faces greater pressure from the United States, where President Joe Biden has requested that humanitarian circumstances in Gaza improve and that a truce be established, stating that continued US support will be contingent on this. The United States is a significant supplier of armaments to the Israeli military.
President Biden has also asked Egyptian and Qatari authorities to put pressure on the Hamas terrorist group to agree to a cease-fire and reach a hostage arrangement ahead of a new round of negotiations in Cairo.
Former President Donald Trump stated in an April 4 interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt that Israel's leadership should "get it over with, and let's get back to peace and stop killing people."
“I’m not sure that I’m loving the way they’re doing it, because you’ve got to have victory. You have to have a victory, and it’s taking a long time.”
“And the other thing is I hate, they put out tapes all the time. Every night, they’re releasing tapes of a building falling down. They shouldn’t be releasing tapes like that. … That’s why they’re losing the PR war.”
Israel recently suffered a significant public relations blow after Israeli soldiers assassinated seven members of the World Central Kitchen (WCK), a non-governmental organization established in the United States. According to the WCK, the workers were traveling in a "deconflicted zone" when they were caught up in an attack.
Following the event, WCK discontinued its humanitarian efforts in Gaza. The IDF terminated two officers and reprimanded three others for their role in the drone attacks that murdered WCK relief workers.
The military agency later stated that the assistance caravan was mistaken for Hamas militants.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant stated that the departure of IDF soldiers from Khan Yunis in southern Gaza is tied to a planned offensive in Rafah, Hamas' final bastion.
“The forces came out [of Gaza] and are preparing for their future missions, we saw examples of such missions in action at Shifa [Hospital], and also for their future mission in the Rafah area,” Mr. Gallant said, according to The Times of Israel.
“We will reach a situation where Hamas does not control the Gaza Strip and where it does not function as a military framework that poses a risk to the citizens of the State of Israel.”
Rafah, a place where around 1.5 million Palestinians have sought safety from other sections of Gaza, is a major source of contention between Israel and the Biden administration. President Biden has urged Israel not to make military incursions in Rafah, saying that doing so would cross a "red line."
However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated at a cabinet meeting last month that "no international pressure will stop Israel" from achieving its military objectives. "If we stop the war now before achieving all of its goals, the meaning is that Israel had lost the war and we will not allow this."
During a meeting with a Republican congressional delegation on Thursday, the Israeli Prime Minister described the conflict as "a battle between not only Israel and Hamas, but I would say the axis of Iran, the terror axis of Iran, that seeks to return the Middle East to the Dark Ages and to impose a terrible barbarism on us all."
“This is a larger battle. Our battle is your battle. Our victory is your victory. And if we don’t have a victory, this will have enormous implications for American security, for our common future. So we must win.”
It has been six months since Hamas massacred more than 1,200 Israeli people on October 7 and kidnapped hundreds more as captives, sparking the current regional conflict.
According to the IDF, 133 captives are still detained by Hamas in Gaza. Over 12,000 rockets have been launched toward Israel, with 9,000 originating from Gaza and the remaining 3,000 from Lebanon. During this time, 604 Israeli soldiers have died, while the IDF has hit over 32,000 terrorist targets.
