(2 Jan 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Southern Israel - 2 January 2024
1. Various of Israeli military helicopter flying and firing
2. Zoom out to wide of helicopter and rainbow in the sky
3. Various of tanks moving in a staging area
4. Various of soldiers standing near tank shells and other ammunition
5. Various of tanks and soldiers, rainbow seen behind them
6. Various of destroyed buildings in Gaza seen from Israel
STORYLINE:
Military helicopters were seen firing and tanks moved in southern Israel on Tuesday while soldiers stood in a staging area near the Gaza border.
Israel announced on Monday that it would withdraw five brigades, or several thousand troops, from Gaza in the coming weeks.
Still, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said it would be a mistake to think that Israel is planning on halting the war.
Israel has said it’s close to achieving operational control over most of northern Gaza, where ground troops have been battling militants for over two months.
But Gallant said several thousand Hamas fighters are believed to still be in the north, and residents reported clashes in several parts of Gaza City, as well as in the nearby urban Jabaliya refugee camp.
Fierce fighting has continued in other areas of the Palestinian territory, especially the south, where many of Hamas’ forces remain intact and where most of Gaza’s population has fled.
The Israeli air, ground and sea assault in Gaza has killed more than 21,900 people in the Strip, two-thirds of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory.
The count does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.
The war started after the deadly Hamas' Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel that killed around 1,200 people, and where about 240 others were taken hostage, some of them released during a week ceasefire on November.
The Israeli campaign has driven some 85% of Gaza’s population from their homes, forcing hundreds of thousands of people into overcrowded shelters or teeming tent camps in Israeli-designated safe areas that the military has nevertheless bombed.
Israel's siege of the territory has left a quarter of Gaza residents facing starvation, according to the United Nations.
AP video shot by Alon Bernstein
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