Israel signals tactics shift, troop pullback from Gaza

Israel pulled tanks out of some Gaza City districts Monday, residents said, as it announced plans to shift tactics and cut back on troop numbers, but fighting raged elsewhere in the Palestinian enclave along with intense bombardment.
Israel says the war in Gaza, which has reduced much of the territory to rubble, has many months to go.
But it also signaled a new phase in its offensive, with an official saying on Monday the military would draw down forces inside Gaza this month and shift to a months-long phase of more localised “mopping up” operations.
A U.S. official said the decision appeared to indicate the start of a shift to lower-intensity operations in the north of the Palestinian enclave. The hints at a lowered tempo in Gaza came as the US Navy announced that the Gerald R Ford aircraft carrier was returning to its home port in Virginia after being deployed to the Eastern Mediterranean following the outbreak of hostilities.
The Israeli official said the troop reduction would allow some reservists to return to civilian life, shoring up Israel’s war-battered economy, and free up units in case of a wider conflict in the north with Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah.
Artillery fire between Hezbollah and Israel has rattled the border since the start of the Gaza conflict, with Israel’s military saying it carried out an air strike Monday.
The scale of suffering in Gaza, where the bombardment has driven almost all inhabitants from their homes, has led Israel’s Western allies, including the US, to urge it to scale down its offensive.
Tanks also pulled out of Gaza City’s al-Mina district and parts of Tel al-Hawa district, while retaining some positions in the suburb controlling the enclave’s main coastal road, residents said.
However, tanks remained in other parts of northern Gaza and health officials said some people trying to return to their homes in a southern district of Gaza City had been killed by Israeli fire on Sunday. On Monday, Hamas’ armed wing claimed to have killed 15 Israeli soldiers after triggering an explosive minefield east of the Tuffah neighborhood in Gaza city.