Israel withdrew from southern Gaza due to the resistance's strikes, expert says

The Israeli occupation army has withdrawn its ground forces from Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip due to the Palestinian resistance’s strikes, Quds Press reported a Jordanian military expert saying.

Jalal Al-Abadi said that over the past two days the Israeli army has suffered a severe blow with 14 of its soldiers and officers killed at the hands of the Al-Qassam Brigades in Khan Yunis.

Al-Abadi told Quds Press that, as a result of its daily losses in Khan Yunis, Israel wants to rely only on its Air Force and drones to strike the area.

He added that Israel could also be looking to regroup its forces in anticipation for heightened tensions in southern Lebanon, noting that a majority of the Israeli military forces are present in the north near the border with Lebanon.

“The [Israeli] occupation wants to enter Rafah only to save face, despite European and American attempts to prevent it, but what happened in Khan Yunis will be reflected in Rafah, and the occupation will move from one failure to another,” Al-Abadi said.

On Sunday, an Israeli army spokesman announced that the army had withdrawn all ground forces from the southern Gaza Strip after four months of fighting, leaving only one battalion in an area established by the army to cut off the north from the south in order to prevent displaced residents of the north returning to their homes.

Israeli media reported that the withdrawal comes within the framework of preparations for a ground invasion of Rafah.

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