Israel has withdrawn its troops from the Gaza Strip to “defensive positions” outside the Palestinian territory, BBC informs. It says the main aim of its offensive – to destroy militants’ tunnels – has been achieved. A 72-hour truce –brokered by Egyptian mediators late on Monday – came into force at 08:00 local time (05:00 GMT) and appears to be holding. Gaza officials say the four-week conflict has killed 1,800 Palestinians. Some 67 Israelis have also been killed. The UN estimates that 75% of the Gaza residents who died were civilians, more than 400 of them children. “The Israel Defense Forces will be redeployed in defensive positions outside the Gaza Strip and we will maintain those defensive positions,” Israeli military spokesman Lt-Col Peter Lerner said.
Just minutes before the truce came into effect, air raid sirens sounded in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv as Hamas militants fired a barrage of rockets at central Israel. Israeli forces also staged raids in Gaza shortly before the ceasefire began.
In a statement just ahead of the withdrawal, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that since then it had eliminated 32 tunnels designed to allow militants to carry out raids into Israel, destroyed 3,000 missiles on the ground and killed about 900 “terrorists”. The IDF estimated that some 3,300 rockets had been fired at Israel during this period, and that Hamas had another 3,000 rockets left for future use.