Israel will gradually move to a new phase of its operations in Gaza, in which the local population will probably be allowed to return to the north of the coastal strip, the Israeli defense minister said yesterday.
"I can tell you that soon we will be able to make distinctions between different areas in Gaza," said the Minister of Defense Joav Galant at a joint press conference with his American counterpart Lloyd Austin in Tel Aviv.
"In every area where we achieve our mission, we will be able to gradually move to the next phase and start working on the return of the local population," said Galant. "This means that it can be achieved sooner in the north than in the south".
Austin said that he is not in Israel to dictate any time frame or terms of the Israeli military campaign, but that he did discuss the transition to less intense operations. "It does not mean the end of the operation. It sometimes means greater precision, greater focus on a specific target," said Austin.
He also pointed out that he called on Israel to protect civilians caught up in the war in Gaza. "There are phases in every campaign," Austin said at a press conference. "We will also continue to call for the protection of civilians during the conflict and for an increase in the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza," he said.
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