Tuesday Briefing: Israel’s New Phase in Gaza

Israel has begun a new and less intense phase of its invasion of Gaza, its military said, after weeks of pressure to scale back its offensive. But its chief of staff said that the country was ready for “another war” against Hezbollah, which said a commander was killed in a strike in Lebanon.

The Israeli military’s top spokesman said the new phase would involve fewer airstrikes and ground troops in Gaza after a drawdown began this month. He said Israel would now focus on Hamas’s southern and central strongholds.

“We can expect more targeted operations rather than wide maneuvers,” Patrick Kingsley, our Jerusalem bureau chief, told us. “Whether that alleviates civilian suffering remains to be seen: The strikes are clearly still continuing, killing scores every day, and more than 80 percent of Gazans are displaced, many of them with no home to return to.”

The killing of the Hezbollah commander, Wissam Hassan al-Tawil, came a day after Israel said that it had killed at least seven Hezbollah members in the Radwan unit, which Israel says aims to infiltrate its northern border. A Lebanese official said al-Tawil was in that unit.