DEIR AL-BALAH (AP) – Heavy fighting was reported in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis yesterday, a day after Israel said it was withdrawing thousands of troops from other areas in a potential shift away from the massive air and ground operations that have devastated the Hamas-ruled enclave.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to press ahead with the war until more than 100 hostages still held by the group in Gaza are freed, saying it could take several more months.
But ahead of a visit to the region by United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Israel is under growing international pressure to scale back the offensive that has killed nearly 22,000 Palestinians. Blinken has urged Israel to do more to protect Palestinian civilians.
Word of the troop drawdown came as Israel’s Supreme Court struck down a key component of Netanyahu’s contentious judicial overhaul plan, which had deeply divided Israelis. The ruling appeared to have dealt a fatal blow to the judicial plan. Netanyahu and his allies seem unlikely to revive the divisive initiative during wartime. Elections are widely expected once the fighting winds down, and widespread anger in Israel over intelligence and security failures.
The army said on Monday that five brigades, or several thousand troops, would be taken out of Gaza in the coming weeks.
Palestinians reported heavy airstrikes and artillery shelling overnight and into yesterday in the southern city of Khan Younis and farming areas to the east, near the border with Israel.
Fighting was also underway in and around the built-up Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza.
Even in Gaza City, which has been largely depopulated and where Israeli ground troops have been there for over two months, residents said there were clashes in different neighbourhoods, as well as in the nearby urban Jabaliya refugee camp.
