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Behind the IDF Withdrawal from Khan Yunis
(Ha'aretz) Yaniv Kubovich - Senior IDF officers said the decision to withdraw its forces from southern Gaza was decided on strictly for operational reasons, based on the security situation in the area, and not due to American demands. The 98th Division had been operating in the Khan Yunis area for four months. The IDF has long understood that keeping troops essentially static in Gaza, instead of moving them to fight in new areas, turned them into targets for terrorist cells. "Sometimes, you have to let the other side emerge from its hideouts," one senior officer explained. "To reach the power centers we haven't yet targeted, we sometimes have to operate in a way that lets the enemy think it has an advantage over us, so as to get them out of their comfort zone and push them to take action and come out." Israeli security sources say the Americans have made it clear they are not opposed to an operation in Rafah, but want to reduce the number of civilians in the city, and allow them to move to areas with better humanitarian conditions, a process which could take several weeks.