The intensive phase of the war will “soon end” in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, where Israeli bombardment is currently heaviest, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallad announced on Monday.

“We had clearly said that the stage of intensive operations would last about three months” in the south, “we will get there and it will end soon”, as, according to him, “the moment will come when we will enter the next phase” of the war in Palestinian enclave.

In a statement, Chahal, the Israeli army, informed that one of the four divisions involved in operations in the Gaza Strip “withdrew”.

Special forces units also participate in the operations.

The Israeli army began ground operations on October 27, after pounding, especially from the air, mainly the northern part of the Palestinian enclave, ordering the population to flee south.

Then the shelling and the most intense fighting moved to the south, especially, in recent weeks, in the areas of the cities of Khan Younis and Rafah.

The war was sparked by an unprecedented attack by Hamas’ military wing on southern sectors of Israeli territory, which killed around 1,440 people, mostly civilians, on October 7, according to an AFP tally based on official statements. It was the deadliest attack since the establishment of the Jewish state in 1948.

Since then at least 24,100 people, the vast majority of them women and children, have been killed and another 60,000 wounded in Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip, according to the health ministry of Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist movement in power in the Palestinian enclave since 2007.