The “intensive phase” of Israel’s ground offensive in northern Gaza has ended and will soon be over in the southern part of the strip as well, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said.
Israeli troops initially focused on Hamas’s strongholds in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, while Gallant noted on Monday that “all the [Hamas] battalion frameworks [in northern Gaza] have been dismantled.”
“Three months ago, together with the IDF chief of staff, director of the Shin Bet, and IDF generals, I presented to the Cabinet the war plan in the Gaza Strip and its ties to other arenas. We made it clear that the intensive maneuvering stage would last for approximately three months,” Gallant explained.
In the three months of war since Hamas’s Oct. 7 terrorist attack, more than 24,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants. The ministry also reports that more than 10,000 children are among those killed in the war, while the Israeli military said over the weekend that approximately 9,000 of the dead were Hamas fighters.
An overwhelming majority of Palestinians in Gaza have been displaced from their homes, while international leaders have warned of a significant lack of essential resources, including food and water.
“In the northern part of the strip, this phase has ended. In southern Gaza, we will reach this achievement, and [the intensive phase] will end soon,” Gallant said, though he did not provide an exact timeline.
The Israel Defense Forces announced on Monday one of its army divisions, its 46th division, which consists of armored, engineering, and infantry companies, withdrew from the Gaza Strip after 80 days.
Israeli leaders have indicated Hamas’s senior leaders in Gaza have been hiding in southern Gaza.
“We are destroying Hamas’s military industry, its production centers [in central Gaza]. These are the places that produce rockets, IEDs, explosives, and other weapons to be used against us. The achievements [of our troops] are very impressive,” while in southern Gaza, “IDF troops are focused on the head of the snake, the Hamas leadership. As part of this action … the Khan Younis Brigade is gradually disintegrating as a fighting force.”
Following the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in Israel, which resulted in the deaths of roughly 1,200 people, Israeli officials said their goal is to remove Hamas from power in Gaza and to demilitarize the U.S.-designated terrorist group.
“And in both places, the moment will come when we will move to the next phase,” he continued.
Hamas and other Gaza-based terrorist groups are holding more than 100 Israeli hostages, who have been held against their will since the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks. Hamas has released videos of some of the hostages in recent days, which Israeli officials described as “psychological torment.”
There are a handful of Americans among the hostages detained in Gaza.
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Israel has also engaged in limited combat against Hezbollah, a more sophisticated, larger U.S.-designated terrorist organization that is based in Lebanon, Israel’s northern neighbor.
The IDF carried out aerial and artillery strikes on “dozens of Hezbollah posts, military structures, and weapons infrastructure” in Lebanon on Tuesday.