JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel will gradually transition to the next phase of its operations in Gaza in which the local population would likely be able to first return to the north of the coastal strip, the country’s defence minister said on Monday.
“I can tell you that soon we will be able to distinguish between different areas in Gaza,” Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said in a joint news conference with his U.S. counterpart Lloyd Austin in Tel Aviv.
“In every area where we achieve our mission we will be able to transition gradually to the next phase and start working on bringing back the local population,” Gallant said. “That means that it can be achieved maybe sooner in the north rather than in the south.”
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that he was not in Israel to dictate any timeline or terms for Israel’s military campaign, but he did discuss making the transition to lower intensity operations.
“That doesn’t signal an end to the operation. It sometimes means that you’re being more precise, you’re being more focused on a specific target set,” he said.
(Reporting by Jerusalem newsroom; editing by Christina Fincher)
