UPDATE - Israel ends ‘high-intensity’ ground offensive in northern Gaza

UPDATED WITH GALLANT'S COMMENT ON PALESTINIANS TO GOVERN GAZA

By Zein Khalil

JERUSALEM (AA) – Israel’s high-intensify ground operation in the northern Gaza Strip has ended, said the nation’s defense chief on Monday.

“In the southern Gaza Strip (the intensive phase) will end soon,” Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told a news conference, without giving an exact timeline.

Gallant said the army will carry out low-intensity operations in northern Gaza, adding that Israeli forces are working to locate remaining sites of Palestinian group Hamas in the area.

The announcement follows weeks of reports that the US has pressured Israel to end its indiscriminate bombing and attacks on Gaza and take a more targeted approach.

Gallant added that after the Israeli onslaught against Gaza, and assuming Hamas is removed from power, Gaza will be governed by Palestinians but not ones that are hostile to Israel.

“The future government in Gaza must grow from the Gaza Strip, Gaza will be ruled by Palestinians," Gallant said.

He added that "the end of the military campaign must be anchored in a political act."

In its deadly onslaught on the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7 Hamas attack, Israel has killed at least 24,100 people and injured 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 UN.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar