The Israeli military chief of staff said on Sunday that even though troops are being withdrawn from the southern Gaza Strip, the six-month-old war in the Palestinian territory is far from over.
"The war in Gaza continues, and we are far from stopping," said Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, who serves as chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
"Senior Hamas officials are still in hiding. We will get to them sooner or later," he said. "We will not leave Hamas brigades active in any part of the Strip."
The IDF said earlier Sunday that it had withdrawn all of its forces from the devastated city of Khan Younis, the biggest in the southern Gaza Strip, in what could mark a turning point in the war that started on October 7.
The troops with the 98th commando mission had left Khan Younis "in order to recuperate and prepare for future operations," a statement said, while emphasizing that Israel would still have a "significant force" presence in Gaza.
Israeli media reported that the IDF now has only one brigade stationed in Gaza.
It was initially unclear whether the withdrawal from Khan Younis was a major change in Israel's war strategy - after coming under immense pressure from frustrated allies like the United States - or a new intermediate stage on the way to the operation in the city of Rafah on the border with Egypt.
Despite strong international opposition, Israel has been maintaining for weeks that it is planning a large-scale incursion into Rafah, the last major population centre in Gaza that has yet see ground forces.
The White House national security spokesman said it was told that Israel's drawdown from southern Gaza was "largely" due to the need for troops to have time to "rest and refit."
"They need a chance to come out. Now what they'll do with those troops after their rest and refit I can't speak too," John Kirby told ABC News.
Kirby reiterated President Joe Biden's opposition to a ground invasion of Rafah.
Halevi, the IDF chief of staff, admitted that not all the goals had been achieved as the war enters its seventh month, including "returning all the hostages home" and "dismantling Hamas throughout the Gaza Strip."
The Palestinian militant group Hamas, which ruled the Gaza Strip, launched a surprise attack on Israel on October 7, killing some 1,200 people and taking more than 200 hostage.
Israel initially retaliated with an aerial onslaught before also launching a major ground offensive that swept from north to south. The Hamas-run Health Ministry puts the death toll in Gaza at over 33,000.
More than 1 million Palestinians are sheltering in Rafah from fighting elsewhere in the sealed-off coastal area.
Much of Gaza lies in ruins as warnings of famine grow and Israel faces blistering condemnation of its actions, including for attacks on health facilities and the recent airstrike that killed seven aid workers from the charity World Central Kitchen.
There are increasing calls in the United States and Britain to stop arms deliveries to Israel.
Many people in Israel are also frustrated by the government's efforts to bring back the hostages kidnapped by Hamas. Over the weekend, tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Israeli cities against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing government.
On Sunday evening, organizers said around 50,000 people attended the demonstration in Jerusalem.
Relatives of those abducted accuse Netanyahu of standing in the way of a new ceasefire deal that would facilitate an exchange of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners.
During a week-long ceasefire at the end of November, Hamas released 105 hostages. In return, Israel released 240 Palestinian prisoners from its facilities.
According to Israel, 133 hostages are still being held in Gaza today, almost a hundred of whom are believed to be alive.
Over the weekend, the director of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), William Burns, and a delegation from Hamas arrived in Cairo to resume indirect talks on deal, sources at the airport told dpa.
Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani also arrived for a visit to Cairo that lasted several hours, the sources said.
According to Israeli reports, the head of the Israeli foreign intelligence service Mossad, David Barnea, was also due to arrive following a decision by the war Cabinet.
Weeks of negotiations - brokered by the US, Qatar and Egypt - with Israel and Hamas have so far failed to achieve a breakthrough.
