The Wall Street Journal has reported Israel withdrew some troops from Gaza following pressure from the United States to transition to a “narrower, more targeted campaign” in hopes to reduce the toll of war on Gaza’s civilian population. Israeli officials worry that the change will constrain the Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) ability to address a possible escalation in Hamas militant activity.
“We paid a very high price for something that is going to have no meaning in a short time,” Giora Eiland, former general, told the WSJ. Civilians, and Hamas militants along with them, will likely be able to trickle back into the areas vacated by Israeli troops, a retired Israeli general said.
The concerns are already proving to be 100% accurate. “IDF withdrew the 36th division from the Gaza Strip on Monday before the official announcement, according to research from the Institute for the Study of War. Hamas’ military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, then fired rockets into southern Israel from locations previously held by the 36th” reports the Daily Caller News Foundation.
“We’ve encouraged Israel, particularly now as it shifts to this new phase, to do so, in terms of their operations, as surgically and as precisely as possible to minimize those casualties,” National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said during a Tuesday briefing while acknowledging that Hamas remains a threat.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaking at the World Economic Forum on Wednesday, called the civilian toll “gut-wrenching” and highlighted U.S. pressure on Israel to adjust its fighting methods, The New York Times reported.
The United States’ ask of Israel puts its bloody success of defeating Hamas at risk. “In north Khan Younis, in south Khan Younis, in east Khan Younis, in all of these places, the battalion structure [of Hamas] has been dismantled and the Khan Younis brigade in practice is slowly coming apart as a fighting force,” Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Monday, the WSJ reported.
Hamas-led Palestinian authorities say 24,000 Palestinians, primarily women and children, have been killed in the fighting. However, not only has the group proven to be unreliable in its reporting of any kind, but the numbers “do not distinguish between civilians and combatants,” the WSJ reported.