The White House stated on Sunday that Israel’s partial pullback from the southern Gaza Strip is probably done so that its troops can “rest and refit,” rather than as a step toward a fresh offensive.
“They’ve been on the ground for four months, the word we’re getting is they’re tired, they need to be refit,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told ABC’s “This Week,” though he stressed that it was “hard to know exactly what this tells us right now.”
Kirby’s remarks came just hours after the military and Israeli media reported that Israel had withdrawn all of its troops from southern Gaza, including the city of Khan Younis, in response to mounting pressure from Washington over the conflict’s alarming death toll.
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have declared that a “significant force” will persist in its operations within the remaining portion of Gaza, which it captured following an offensive by Hamas on October 7.
1,170 Israelis and foreigners were killed in that incident, the majority of whom were civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli numbers.
According to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, Israel’s retaliation campaign has resulted in at least 33,175 deaths in Palestinian territory.
Kirby promised to “speak to their operations” on behalf of the IDF.
“As we understand it, and through their public announcements, it is really just about rest and refit for these troops that have been on the ground for four months and not necessarily, that we can tell, indicative of some coming new operation for these troops,” he said.
