US officials believe Israel will end ground operations in southern Gaza by January: Report
· WIONOfficials in the United States believe that the current phase of Israel’s ground invasion of Gaza amid its ongoing war with the Palestinian militant group Hamas will possibly end by January 2024 to a less intense and hyper-localised strategy, according to a report by CNN.
The White House has also reportedly expressed concerns over Israel’s new ground phase in southern Gaza and warned Tel Aviv to take more steps to limit civilian casualties.
More than 16,200 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, since Israel launched its retaliatory attacks following the Palestinian militant group’s October 7 attack on Israel.
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Will Israel change military tactics in Gaza?
A report by CNN citing multiple US officials said that Washington is hopeful that Israel might move to more targeted attacks against specific Hamas militants and leaders by January. Israel has previously indicated that it is planning a long-term campaign in Gaza to eradicate the Palestinian militant group.
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Israel has previously indicated that it is planning a long-term campaign in Gaza to eradicate the Palestinian militant group and that its ultimate goal is to weaken Hamas to such an extent that it can never launch an attack similar to the one on October 7.
However, a senior US official told the American media outlet that it is unlikely that Israel will achieve the said goal by the end of this year.
Therefore, Israel is expected to continue pursuing that objective in the next phase of the conflict which US officials see as a “longer-term campaign.” “We are in a high-intensity operation in the coming weeks, then probably moving to a low-intensity mode,” an Israeli official told CNN.
The report, citing a source familiar with the intelligence, said that as per current US assessments, Israel simply cannot maintain its level of high-intensity operations indefinitely, particularly with mobilised reservists.
This has also been attributed to the fact that Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has also had to protect the country’s northern border from near-daily attacks by Lebanon-based Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah since the beginning of its war with Hamas.
Therefore, Israeli forces will likely need to transition to more targeted raids once they have cleared as many Hamas militants in Gaza as they can, reported CNN citing the source.
US warns Israel about ‘waning international support’
Amid the mounting death toll and the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza, the US has reportedly told Israel that global opinion has increasingly turned against its ground campaign which has killed thousands of civilians in the Palestinian enclave.
White House has recently also expressed its deep concerns about the way that Israel’s operations will unfold in the next couple of weeks as Israeli forces enter a new ground phase in the south, reported CNN citing an official from President Joe Biden’s administration.
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The US has warned Israel firmly in “hard” and “direct” conversations that the IDF cannot continue the devastating operations as it did in the north, the official said.
The Biden administration over the past few weeks has also publicly called on Israel to take more steps to minimise civilian deaths but stopped short of directly admonishing the IDF’s tactics.
The report comes a day after US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Washington expects Israel to avoid attacking areas identified as “no-strike” zones in Gaza.
(With inputs from agencies)
Disclaimer: WION takes utmost care to accurately and responsibly report ongoing developments on the Israel-Palestine conflict after the Hamas attacks. However, we cannot independently verify the authenticity of all statements, photos and videos.