IDF spokesman addresses concerns over revelation to NYT that IDF rolling back northern Gaza fighting

IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari attempts to clarify remarks he made earlier today to the New York Times, in which he said the military had “shifted a stage” to less intense combat in the northern Gaza Strip.

“There are still terror operatives and weapons in the north of the Gaza Strip, but they do not function within an organized military framework and now we operate there in [a different] way, and with a different mix of forces,” he says in an evening press conference.

“At this stage, we are focusing on the center of the Gaza Strip and the south of the Gaza Strip. This is still an intense and complex operational activity,” he says adding that the fighting in Gaza will continue throughout 2024.

Military and defense officials have said the IDF will continue intensive operations in the Strip’s center and south, while carrying out smaller operations in the north, where Hamas is largely defeated.

Hagari does not deny that the intensity of the IDF’s fighting has waned in northern Gaza.

He had come under fire for making the announcement about the shift for the first time in English to American media, and not directly to the Israeli public in Hebrew.