August 2, 2014: An Israeli soldier kisses his girlfriend before he returns to his unit in a staging area near the Israel Gaza border. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)
Some Israeli forces have begun pulling back to near the country's border with the Gaza Strip after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a new warning to Hamas Saturday and promised that Israel would fight "as long as it will take" to prevent further rocket attacks against Israeli civilians.
The Wall Street Journal, citing witnesses, reported that Israeli tanks had begun to pull back toward the border late Saturday. Residents of at least one area of northern Gaza that had been heavily shelled by Israel were given the all-clear to return to their homes, while a military spokesman confirmed to The Journal that some troops were crossing back into Israeli territory.
A United Nations school sheltering displaced people in the southern Gaza Strip was hit Sunday by what a U.N. official said appeared to be an Israeli airstrike.
Gaza health official Ashraf al-Kidra said at least 10 people were killed and 35 wounded after the strike near a boys' school in the town of Rafah. Robert Turner, the director of operations for the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency in Gaza, said preliminary findings indicated the blast was the result of an Israeli airstrike near the school, which had been providing shelter for some 3,000 people. He said at least one U.N. staffer appeared to be dead.
Witnesses said the attack happened while people were waiting in line for food supplies. The Israeli military had no immediate comment.
In a chaotic scene inside the compound of the U.N. school, several bodies, among them children, were strewn across the ground in puddles of blood.
Some of the wounded, among them children with bloody head bandages, were transported to the Kuwaiti hospital in Rafah and others were treated in what seemed to be a makeshift clinic underneath a tent. Several dead bodies, wrapped in white cloth, were lined up on the floor.
In nearly four weeks of fighting, more than 1,700 Palestinians, mainly civilians, have been killed as well as nearly 70 Israelis, almost all soldiers.
Israel launched an aerial campaign in Gaza on July 8 to try to halt Palestinian rocket fire that has reached major cities, and later sent in troops to dismantle a sophisticated system of cross-border tunnels built by the militants in order to carry out attacks.
An Israeli official told The Associated Press that troops will remain in Gaza to wrap up the tunnel demolition but the effort is not expected to take “much more time." The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not permitted to discuss internal government deliberations with reporters. Israeli media reported that 31 tunnels have already been demolished and that the mission was close to being complete.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Netanyahu's government is divided on what course to take following the completion of the tunnel operation. Some have pushed for a continuation of the all-out offensive, known as Operation Protective Edge. Others believe the best course is to end the offensive, keep a blockade operated jointly with Egypt in place, and mobilize international opinion to convince Hamas to disarm.
A former Israeli security official told The Journal that Netanyahu's government would have three days to decide their next move after the completion of the tunnel operation, while Israeli forces would redeploy to the border regions.
Israel struck several targets in Gaza on Sunday. Artillery shells slammed into two high-rise office buildings in downtown Gaza City and large explosions could be heard seconds apart, police and witnesses said. Al-Kidra said 30 Palestinians were killed Sunday, including nine in a single strike in the southern Gaza Strip. Israel said it carried out 180 strikes Sunday.
While fighting continued, several Israeli tanks and other vehicles were seen leaving Gaza. In his televised address Saturday, Netanyahu suggested troops would reassess operations after completing the demolition of the tunnels.
At the same time, Netanyahu warned the territory's Hamas rulers that they would pay an "intolerable price" if militants continued to fire rockets at Israel and that all options remain on the table.
The Israeli military death toll rose to 64 after Israel announced that Hadar Goldin, a 23-year-old infantry lieutenant feared captured in Gaza, was actually killed in battle. His funeral is later Sunday. Three civilians have been killed on the Israeli side since hostilities began.
Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon revealed on his Facebook page Sunday that he is a distant relative of Goldin.
Israel had earlier said it feared Goldin had been captured by Hamas militants alongside two other soldiers who were killed Friday near Rafah in an ambush that shattered a cease-fire and was followed by heavy shelling that left dozens of Palestinians dead.
Hamas has said it will not stop fighting until Israel and Egypt lift their blockade of Gaza, imposed after the Islamic militant group overran the territory in 2007.
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