Israeli troops are being withdrawn from the battle-scarred city of Khan Younis to prepare for a new offensive into Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, the country’s defense minister announced Sunday.
Addressing military commanders, Yoav Gallant said forces were being temporarily pulled from Khan Younis, about 10 kilometers from the Egyptian border, and are preparing “for their future missions in the Rafah area.”
Gallant reiterated Israel’s position that hostilities will continue until “we will reach a situation where Hamas does not control the Gaza Strip and where it does not function as a military framework that poses a risk to the citizens of the State of Israel.”
Earlier Sunday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced that its elite 98th division had “concluded its mission” and would pull back in order to “recuperate.”
Rafah, the southernmost city in the Gaza Strip along the border with Egypt, had been designated as a safe zone for civilians fleeing widespread destruction in densely-inhabited areas further north. An estimated 1.7 million Palestinians have been displaced as a result of the invasion, which followed attacks by Hamas that left almost 1,200 Israeli civilians dead on Oct. 7. Humanitarian groups warn the entire population is now at risk of famine. Israel reports that four battalions of Hamas fighters are stationed in Rafah.
U.N. Secretary General António Guterres warned in February that an assault on Rafah would “put the final nail in the coffin” of humanitarian aid operations and leave civilians without support. Earlier this week the IDF admitted killing seven aid workers after repeatedly hitting a World Central Kitchen convoy distributing food in central Gaza in what it said had been an operational error.
The U.S. and other Western allies have repeatedly called on Israel not to launch an all-out attack on Rafah, the last remaining area that has not come under the control of the IDF; Washington has called for a more targeted approach that would minimize civilian casualties.
In a statement when the operation was initially announced in February, the EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said the bloc “is very concerned about Israeli government plans for a possible ground operation in Rafah, where well over a million Palestinians are currently sheltering from the fighting.”
More than 30,000 Palestinians are estimated to have died in the five months since the start of the fighting in Gaza.
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