Israel reduces troop numbers in southern Gaza
By Lipika Pelham
Israel’s military said on Sunday that it was reducing its numbers of soldiers from southern Gaza, leaving just one brigade in the area.
The military stressed a “significant force” would remain in Gaza.
“This is another stage in the war effort”, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Lt Col Peter Lerner told the BBC.
The pull-out is being interpreted as tactical, rather than a sign the war may be moving closer to its end.
Also on Sunday, Israel and Hamas said they had both sent delegations to Cairo to join fresh ceasefire negotiations.
It is six months to the day since Hamas attacked southern Israeli border communities on 7 October, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostage.
Israel says that of 130 hostages still in Gaza, at least 34 are dead.
More than 33,000 Gazans have been killed in Israel’s offensive in Gaza since then, the Hamas-run health ministry says, the majority of them civilians. Gaza is on the brink of famine, with Oxfam reporting that 300,000 people trapped in the north have lived since January on an average of 245 calories a day.
