Israel to withdraw some troops from Gaza to shift to more targeted operations - official Israel is withdrawing some troops from Gaza to shift to more targeted operations against Hamas, an Israeli official has said. The official said the withdrawal was focused on reservists – of which Israel drafted 300,000 for the war – and designed to “re-energise the Israeli economy”. But the official told Reuters that some of the troops pulled out of Gaza in the south would be prepared for rotation to the northern border with Lebanon, where Hezbollah militants have been exchanging fire with Israel in solidarity with the Palestinians. Israel has warned that if Hezbollah does not back down a full-on Lebanon war looms. Both Hamas and Hezbollah are backed by Iran, whose militant allies in Syria, Iraq and Yemen have also been carrying out longer-range attacks against Israel. “The situation on the Lebanese front will not be allowed to continue. This coming six-month period is a critical moment,” the official said. Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group has said on its Telegram account that three of its fighters have been killed in southern Lebanon. The statement gave no detail about how the three were killed, Agence France-Presse reports, but said they “were martyred on the road to (liberate) Jerusalem”. Security sources said they were killed in an Israeli raid on two houses in the Lebanese village of Kafr Kila near the border where Hezbollah maintains security control. Hezbollah, an ally of Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, has been exchanging near-daily fire with Israel across Lebanon’s southern frontier since the eruption of the Israeli-Hamas war in Gaza in early October. The Israeli military said on Monday it struck a series of targets in Lebanon, including “military sites” where Hezbollah was operating. Israeli air strikes and shelling have killed more than 100 Hezbollah fighters and nearly two dozen civilians, including children, elderly and several journalists, according to Hezbollah and security sources. Monday’s raid comes after a senior Israeli official told Reuters that the country was expanding preparations for a Lebanon war. “The situation on the Lebanese front will not be allowed to continue. This coming six-month period is a critical moment,” the official said according to the news agency. This is Helen Livingstone, taking over from my colleague, Maya Yang. Summary Here is where things stand: The Palestine Red Crescent Society has collaborated with the Egyptian Red Crescent to establish the first organized camp in Khan Younis for Palestinians displaced by Israeli strikes across Gaza. The camp is initially set to hold 300 families from PRCS medical, ambulance and relief teams, with its capacity set to expand later to 1,000 tents, the PRCS said. Some of the Israeli communities north of the Gaza Strip that were evacuated in the wake of the 7 October attack by Hamas will be able to go back in the near future as military operations progress, the Israeli defence minister, Yoav Gallant, said on Monday. According to published remarks from a briefing, Gallant said that some of the evacuated communities in areas within a range of 4-7km north of the territory would be able to return soon. Israel’s supreme court has ruled against a key component of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government’s judicial overhaul, which challenged the powers of the judiciary. A supreme court statement said eight of 15 justices had ruled against an amendment passed by parliament in July which scraps the “reasonableness” clause, used by the court to overturn government decisions which are deemed unconstitutional, Reuters reports. The Israeli military claims to have killed Adil Mismah, a regional commander of Hamas’s elite Nukhba forces, in the central city of Deir al-Balah. The Israel Defense Forces said Mismah had taken part in Hamas’s 7 October attack against Israel. Israeli settlers killed at least 10 Palestinians and set alight dozens of homes in the occupied West Bank in 2023, making it the “most violent” year on record for settler attacks, an Israeli watchdog has said. Numerous West Bank attacks were carried out by a large group of Israeli settlers and the violence rose after Hamas’s 7 October attacks on Israel, said Yesh Din, a human rights group. Israel is withdrawing some troops from Gaza to shift to more targeted operations against Hamas, an Israeli official told Reuters. The official said the withdrawal was focused on reservists – of which Israel drafted 300,000 for the war – and designed to “re-energise the Israeli economy”. Satellite images of Gaza City and Khan Younis City show the scale of devastation caused by Israeli bombardment of the besieged Palestinian enclave. At least 70% of the homes in Gaza are believed to have been destroyed by the air campaign. The images, downloaded from Sentinel Hub, show that the colour of Gaza City and Khan Younis appears completely different from space. The before-and-after images depict both cities as of 3 August this year and 31 December. “Gaza City is now a different colour from space. It’s a different texture,” said Corey Scher, a specialist in the use of satellite imagery to assess political conflict at the CUNY Graduate Center, told the Associated Press. Here are some images coming through the newswires from Gaza where Israeli forces have killed nearly 22,000 Palestinians since 7 October while survivors grapple with shortages in food, water, fuel and medical supplies. The family of Maya Puder, a 25-year old aspiring actor and film-maker who was found dead four days after Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October, continues to mourn her loss. The Guardian’s Emine Sinmaz reports: When Maya Puder went missing from the Supernova music festival in Israel on 7 October, her family prayed she was in hiding somewhere or had been kidnapped. The 25-year-old aspiring actor and film-maker last messaged her parents at 8.01am to say she was sheltering from Hamas rockets. But her family’s hopes were shattered four days later when they were told Maya had been found dead 20 metres away from a shelter. “It was devastating, all our hopes were crushed,” said Maya’s mother, Ayala Puder. “I’d never in my worst imagination thought about a situation where I’d have to bury my daughter, and to bury her under those circumstances of her being murdered so brutally. It’s beyond devastating.” Palestine Red Crescent Society establishes first organized camp in Khan Younis for displaced Palestinians The Palestine Red Crescent Society has collaborated with the Egyptian Red Crescent to establish the first organized camp in Khan Younis for Palestinians displaced by Israeli strikes across Gaza. The camp is initially set to hold 300 families from PRCS medical, ambulance and relief teams, with its capacity set to expand later to 1,000 tents, the PRCS said. Since October 7, 1.9 million Palestinians have been forcibly displaced by Israeli strikes across Gaza which have killed nearly 22,000 Palestinians. A displaced Palestinian woman gave birth to quadruplets in Gaza amid Israeli bombardment and severe shortages in fuel and medical supplies. Eman al-Masri was pregnant when she had to move from northern Gaza to Jabalia refugee camp before finally sheltering in central Gaza, where she gave birth to quadruplets. Her young family now resides in a former school classroom with 50 other families. She said: “The entire place is not suitable for children, and there is no money even to buy diapers, milk, or anything.” She added: ‘All of this had an impact on me, on the children who were in my womb, and on my young children.” Israel is withdrawing some of its troops from Gaza as a senior Israeli official said it plans to continue its war across the strip – which has killed nearly 22,000 Palestinians – for “six months at least”. The Guardian’s Emma Graham-Harrison reports: There is growing international pressure to curb an offensive that has so far killed nearly 22,000 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them women and children. Even Israel’s staunchest ally, the US, which rejects calls for a ceasefire, has started pushing the government to scale back the ferocity of its attacks. Plans to send some reservists home from Gaza, confirmed on New Year’s Eve, mark the start of a new stage in the war, a senior official told Reuters, and may be presented as a partial response to those demands. But Israel still expects heavy fighting in Gaza for much of 2024 as it hunts for senior Hamas leaders, even if there are fewer troops on the ground. “This will take six months at least, and involve intense mopping-up missions against the terrorists. No one is talking about doves of peace being flown from Shejaiya,” the official said, referring to a Gaza district that has been the scene of heavy battles. Reuters did not identify him by name. Not all of those returned from Gaza will go home. Some would be prepared for rotation to the northern border with Lebanon, amid fears of a wider escalation of the conflict, the official told Reuters. Here are some images coming through the newswires of pro-Palestine rallies held around the world in recent days, in which thousands of protesters called for a ceasefire in Gaza, where nearly 22,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes: Israeli defense minister: Some of evacuated Israeli communities north of Gaza strip can return soon Some of the Israeli communities north of the Gaza Strip that were evacuated in the wake of the 7 October attack by Hamas will be able to go back in the near future as military operations progress, the Israeli defence minister, Yoav Gallant, said on Monday. According to published remarks from a briefing, Gallant said that some of the evacuated communities in areas within a range of four to seven kilometers north of the territory would be able to return soon. Israel’s supreme court has ruled against a key component of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government’s judicial overhaul, which challenged the powers of the judiciary. Reuters reports: A supreme court statement said eight of 15 justices had ruled against an amendment passed by parliament in July which scraps the “reasonableness” clause, used by the court to overturn government decisions which are deemed unconstitutional. “This is due to the severe and unprecedented damage to the basic characteristics of the State of Israel as a democratic state,” the statement said. Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu had argued the sweeping judicial reform package presented a year ago was necessary to rebalance powers between judges and politicians. But his detractors warn the multi-pronged package paved the way for authoritarian rule and could be used by Netanyahu to quash possible convictions against him, an accusation the premier denies.