TEL AVIV, January 15. /TASS/. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has withdrawn the 36th Division from the Gaza Strip for rest, recreation and training "as part of the IDF’s plans for a long war against Hamas," The Times of Israel said.

According to the paper, three divisions will continue fighting Hamas in Gaza. As the paper says, "Over the past two months, the 36th Division operated in northern Gaza, dismantling Hamas’s battalions." After its withdrawal, the 162nd Division will remain in northern Gaza "carrying out clean-up operations to locate Hamas’s infrastructure and kill or capture its remaining operatives," the paper said. The 99th Division "is operating in the central part of the Strip; and the 98th Division is fighting Hamas in the Khan Younis area of southern Gaza," The Times of Israel added.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7 after militants from the Gaza Strip-based radical Palestinian group Hamas launched a surprise incursion on Israeli territory, killing many Israeli kibbutz residents living near the Gaza border and abducting more than 200 Israelis, including women, children and the elderly. Hamas described its attack as a response to Israeli authorities’ aggressive actions against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City. Israel declared a total blockade of the Gaza Strip and launched bombardments of the enclave and some areas in Lebanon and Syria, as well as a ground operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Clashes are also reported in the West Bank.