Hi,
Israel is lowering the fighting in Gaza strip in the last days, and five brigades have been pulled out of the strip this week.
It is being referred to as the third stage of the war: reducing the units that sit permanently inside Gaza and more operations for specific missions or locations.
That comes along with the leaving of the American Aircraft carrier Ford. That less relevant for the war in Gaza and more for the war that might start with Hezbollah on Lebanon border with Israel.
You can see the fighting had been lowering as in the last couple of days as no 6:00 AM fallen soldiers announcement be IDF spokesperson has been released (the injured soldiers announcements have been attached to the fallen soldiers announcements. It was strange to see the announcement of only injured soldiers. You feel good for a bit of a second, as no soldier as died, but then feels bad again for those injured soldiers, like Mish)
It is not clear to me how we have moved to the third stage of the war, if we are not progressing in the targets of it: taking down Hamas (which is not realistic) and bringing back the hostages kiddnaped by Hamas on the Black Sabbath (October 7th). The government does not seem to take any steps in negotiating on releasing the hostages. It is clear IDF forces inside the Gaza strip do not release those hostages.
For me, the release of those soldiers back home means Guri will no longer fight iniside the strip (at least in the near future).
Ima said a couple of months ago that everything is normal now, but she has that heavy weight of Guri fighting inside the strip. She stopped the sentence as we understood she was thinking about him injured or worse.
Take Care
Gad
IDF soldiers in Gaza strip (Source: idf.il)