Occupation’s Chief of Staff moves armored division from Gaza to Lebanon border

Tel Aviv (Quds News Network) – Israeli occupation’s Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, has decided to relocate the 36th Armored Division from the Gaza Strip to the border with Lebanon, where Israeli occupation forces engage in cross-border exchanges with Hezbollah.

According to the Israeli Army radio, recent discussions within the military’s General Staff included a request from Southern Command’s Major General Yaron Finkelman to keep the 36th Division, the largest regular division in the Israeli Army, in the central region of Gaza. This was intended to increase military pressure on Hamas movement.

However, Major General Oded Basyuk, the head of the Operations Directorate, argued for the necessity to withdraw the division from Gaza and move it to the north, replacing reserve forces to be ready for any scenario, as reported by the radio.

Ultimately, the Chief of Staff decided to withdraw the 36th Division from Gaza and relocate it to the Lebanese border. The division consists of maneuver units, including armored, infantry, and engineering forces, such as the 188th Brigade, the Seventh Brigade, the Golan Brigade, the Atzmoni Brigade, and the Combat Engineering Corps.

Since late December, the Israeli military had already withdrawn the 4th and 55th reserve divisions, the 7107th Combat Engineering Battalion, and the 13th Battalion in the Golan Brigade from Gaza.

The decision coincides with ongoing mutual shelling between Hezbollah and the Israeli occupation. Yesterday, Hezbollah announced targeting “espionage equipment” at the Rweisat al-Alam site in the Kfar Shuba hills and the occupied Shebaa Farms, confirming a direct hit.

In response, Israeli occupation forces reportedly shelled several towns in the western and central sectors, with artillery fire targeting the surroundings of the towns of Kafr Shuba and Rshaf in the central sector, as well as the towns of Naqoura, Tayr Harfa, Dhaira, Marwahin, and Aita al-Shaab in the western sector.

The Israeli military, continuing its aggression on Gaza for the five months, has escalated its aerial and artillery attacks on towns and villages in southern Lebanon, resulting in civilian casualties, fatalities, and hundreds of families forced to evacuate their homes.