Israel started pulling some troops out of Gaza as Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that the intensive phase of the country's ground operation will end soon, as the U.N. chief called for an "immediate cease-fire."
"In the south of the Gaza Strip [the intensive phase] will end soon," Gallant said Monday, without giving an exact timeline.
Gallant said the army will carry out low-intensified operations in northern Gaza, adding that Israeli forces are working to locate the remaining "Hamas sites" in the area.
The army had stepped up military operations and bombardments in the southern cities of Khan Younis and Rafah in recent weeks after saying Hamas's military structures in the north had been dismantled.
"We made it clear that the intensive maneuvering stage would last for approximately three months," Gallant told a news conference.
He said the stage was already being reached in the northern Gaza Strip.
"In southern Gaza, we will reach this achievement and it will end soon, and in both places, the moment will come when we will move to the next phase," he said, without specifying a time frame.
Israel launched its ground operation in the Gaza Strip on Oct. 27.
The army said on its website an entire division of soldiers had completed their withdrawal from Gaza on Monday.
Israel had four divisions operating in Gaza before Monday's announced withdrawal, though it was unclear how many soldiers were involved in the pullout.
Israel has launched a deadly onslaught on the Gaza Strip since Hamas' Oct. 7 attack, killing at least 24,100 people and injuring 60,834 others, while nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed.
The offensive has left 85% of Gaza's population internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure was damaged or destroyed, according to the U.N.
