On Thursday, the Israeli army withdrew from the areas of the northwestern Gaza governorates and the northern Gaza Strip, for the first time since the start of its ground military operation on October 27, 2023.

The army and its military vehicles withdrew completely for the first time since October 27 from areas they had penetrated into in the western region of the northern Gaza Strip governorate, which includes the neighborhoods of Al-Tawam, Al-Karama, and Al-Rashid Street.

Israeli army also withdrew from residential neighborhoods located in the northwestern areas of Gaza Governorate, namely “General Security,” “Al-Maqousi,” “Intelligence Towers,” “Bahloul,” and “Al-Rashid Street.”

Hours after the withdrawal, residents of those areas went to inspect their homes and property, which they had been displaced from when the war on the Gaza Strip began.

A number of citizens said that they were “able to reach this area for the first time since the start of the ground operation.”

On October 27, 2023, the Israeli army began a ground operation that included an incursion into several areas and neighborhoods in the Gaza and North governorates.

Since mid-December, Israeli army began gradually withdrawing from areas in the northern Gaza Governorate, followed at the beginning of last January by partial withdrawals from neighborhoods and areas in the Gaza Governorate.

While it reopened its incursion into some areas in the Gaza and North governorates, in the middle of last January, to carry out rapid operations, changing the locations of the incursion from time to time while retreating after the end of its operations to its locations near the eastern and northern outskirts of the North governorate, and the eastern and “southwestern” parts of Gaza.

Since October 7, 2023, the Israeli occupation army has been waging a devastating war on the Gaza Strip that, as of Wednesday, left “26,900 killed and 65,949 injured, most of them children and women,” according to the Palestinian authorities, and caused “massive destruction and an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe,” according to the United Nations.