Israel to pull some troops from Gaza as war against Hamas enters new phase

Israel is withdrawing some forces from Gaza to shift to more targeted operations against Hamas, and is partially returning reservists to civilian life to help the economy as the war looks set to last well into the new year, an Israeli official said.

The military said in a statement Monday that five brigades, or several thousand troops, were being taken out of Gaza in the coming weeks for training and rest.

The official Reuters spoke to said some of themwill prepare for a possible flareup of a second front against Hezbollah in Lebanon, but that toppling the Islamist faction in the Palestinian territory remained an objective.

Since launching the war in retaliation for the cross-border Hamas attacks of Oct. 7, Israeli officials have said they would wage it in three main stages. The first was intense shelling to clear access routes for ground forces and encourage civilians to evacuate. The second was the invasion that began on Oct. 27.

With tanks and troops having now overrun much of the Gaza Strip, largely asserting control despite Palestinian gunmen continuing their ambushes from hidden tunnels and bunkers, the military is moving to the third stage, said the official, who could not be named in print given the sensitivity of the issue.

"This will take six months at least, and involve intense mopping-up missions against the terrorists. No one is talking about doves of peace being flown from Shajaia," the official told Reuters, referring to a Gaza district ravaged by fighting.

In addition to the 1,200 people killed on Oct. 7, Hamas took some 240 hostage. Israel is also determined to recover the 129 still held in Gaza. Qatari- and Egyptian-mediated truce efforts have raised the prospect of some of them being freed.

The shift appeared to correspond to pressure from Israel's top ally, the United States, to review tactics and do more to protect non-combatants.

WATCH | Israel says it's trying to be more 'surgical' to reduce casualties:

Israel claims it's reduced civilian casualties as Gazans pleads for help

9 months ago

Duration 2:04

While millions in Gaza scramble for any sort of shelter, Israel claims its trying to be more surgical in its military operations to reduce civilian casualties, but also warns its campaign to crush Hamas could last months.

Some troops to move closer to Lebanon

Israel initially drafted 300,000 reservists some 10to 15 per centof its workforce for what looks set to be its longest-ever war. Government sources have said between 200,000 and 250,000 reservists were still mobilized and absent from jobs or studies.

The official said two of the brigades being withdrawn were made up of reservists, and described the move as designed to "re-energize the Israeli economy." Local media have reported that several military divisions were deployed throughout Gaza.

The official added that some of the troops pulled out of Gaza in the south would be prepared for rotation to the northern border with Lebanon, where Hezbollah has been exchanging fire with Israel in solidarity with the Palestinians.

Next 6 monthscritical, official says

Israel has warned that, if Hezbollah does not back down, a full-on Lebanon war looms. Both Hamas and Hezbollah are backed by Iran, whose militant allies in Syria, Iraq and Yemen have also been carrying out longer-range attacks against Israel.

"The situation on the Lebanese front will not be allowed to continue. This coming six-month period is a critical moment," the official said, adding that Israel would convey a similar message to a U.S. envoy conducting shuttle missions to Beirut.

In Gaza, the Israel-Hamas war has inflicted unprecedented devastation, with the territory's Health Ministry reporting almost 22,000 fatalities, many of them civilian. Israel says it has killed more than 8,000 Palestinian fighterssuggesting that, by its own accounting, Hamas retains core personnel. Pre-war Israeli assessment were that the group had around 30,000 fighters.

Israel has listed 174 soldiers many of them reservists as killed in Gaza fighting and nine on the Lebanese border.

Fatalities reported after missile strike in central Gaza

Late Monday, at least eight people were killed and 20 more injured when a missile struck a house in the central Gazan city of Deir al-Balah. The dead and the wounded were taken to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. No further information about the blast was immediately available.

Gaza's Health Ministry said Monday that 156 people were killed in the past day.

The Israeli military, meanwhile, said an airstrike killed Adel Mismah, a regional commander of Hamas's elite Nukhba forces, in the central city of Deir al-Balah.

Hamas fired a large barrage of rockets toward Israel, including at its commercial hub Tel Aviv, as the clock struck midnight on New Year's Eve.