Israel army calls up 2 brigades from northern Israel to Gaza

The Israeli army, on Wednesday, announced transferring two combat brigades from northern Israel to carry out fighting missions in Gaza, Anadolu Agency reports.

In a statement, the Israeli army said the 2nd Reserve Brigade of the 146th Division and the 679th Reserve Brigade of the 210th Division will be transferred from northern Israel, at the Lebanon border, to the Gaza Strip.

The two brigades have finalised their combat training preparedness for their mission in Gaza, the Israeli army added.

The statement, however, did not clarify the nature of the mission in Gaza, but the move came amid the Israeli army’s plans to attack Rafah city, southern Gaza Strip.

Last week, an Israeli government spokesperson said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu set a date for invading Rafah.

Rafah is the last remaining area in the enclave where Israel has not yet formally announced the entry of its troops to continue the onslaught against Palestinians.

Israel has waged a brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group, Hamas, on 7 October last year, which Tel Aviv says killed nearly 1,200 people.

However, since then, it has been revealed by Haaretz that helicopters and tanks of the Israeli army had, in fact, killed many of the 1,139 soldiers and civilians claimed by Israel to have been killed by the Palestinian Resistance.

More than 34,180 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and 77,000 others injured amid mass destruction and severe shortages of necessities.

The Israeli war has pushed 85 per cent of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60 per cent of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) which, in January, issued an interim ruling that ordered it to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

READ: UN rights commissioner slams Israel’s killing of women, children in Rafah