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

Israel is withdrawing troops from its invasion force in Gaza to shift to more targeted operations, as well as partially returning reservists to civilian life to help the economy as the war on the Palestinian enclave looks set to last well into the new year, an Israeli official said.

The official said toppling Hamas remained an objective of the offensive, and that some of the five brigades withdrawn will prepare for a potential second front against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Since launching the war on Gaza, Israeli officials have said they would wage it in three main stages. The first was intense shelling of civilian areas to clear access routes for ground forces and force civilians from their homes. The second was the invasion that began on October 27.

Israeli tanks and troops have now overrun much of the Gaza Strip but Palestinian fighters are continuing their ambushes from hidden tunnels and bunkers. The official, who withheld his name, said that the Israeli military was now ready to move to the is moving to the third stage.

Israel's indiscriminate war on Gaza has devastated the territory, destroying residential areas, hospitals, schools, and mosques and forcing nearly all its 2.3 million people to flee their homes. Nearly 22,000 people have been killed, most of them women and children, with over 56,000 wounded. 

"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 devastated by Israeli attacks.

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, though Washington has provided strong diplomatic cover and military support to Israel's brutal war.  

Bolstering economy

Israel initially drafted 300,000 reservists - some 10% to 15% of 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 mobilised 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The official said two of the brigades being withdrawn were made up of reservists, and described the move as designed to "re-energise the Israeli economy".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.

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 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, besides the tens of thousands of civilian casualties, Israel claims it has killed more than 8,000 Palestinian fighters - suggesting that, by its own accounting, Hamas retains core personnel. Pre-war Israeli assessment were that the group had around 30,000 fighters.

The Israeli military announced on Saturday it was sending some reservists home as part of what top commander Lieutenant-General Herzi Halevi has deemed a "reconfiguration" of forces.

"From the first moments of this war, we said it would take long," Halevi told troops on Tuesday. "Will we ultimately be able to say there are no more foes around the State of Israel? I think that is overly ambitious. But we will deliver a different security situation - safe and, as much as possible, stable too."

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

(Reuters and The New Arab Staff)