Report: Israel to pull some troops from Gaza

Israel is withdrawing some forces from Gaza to shift to more targeted operations against Hamas, an Israeli official has told Reuters. 

The official said the war will continue in the Palestinian enclave until Hamas is toppled, adding that some of the troops withdrawn will prepare for a possible second front in Lebanon. 

With tanks and troops having now destroyed much of the Gaza Strip, the military is moving to another stage of the war, said the official, who could not be identified by name given the sensitivity of the issue.

"This will take six months at least, and involve intense mopping-up missions against the terrorists. No one is talking about doves of peace being flown from Shajaia," the official told Reuters, referring to a Gaza district ravaged by fighting.

Israel drafted 300,000 reservists for the war - an estimated 10 to 15 percent of its workforce. Some were quickly discharged, but government sources have said between 200,000 and 250,000 were still serving and absent from jobs or universities.

The official said the withdrawal was focused on reservists and designed to "re-energise the Israeli economy".

But the official said some of the troops pulled out of Gaza in the south would be prepared for rotation to the northern border with Lebanon, whose Hezbollah members have been exchanging fire with Israel in solidarity with the Palestinians.

Israel has warned that, if Hezbollah does not back down, a full-on Lebanon war looms. 

"The situation on the Lebanese front will not be allowed to continue. This coming six-month period is a critical moment," the official said, adding that Israel would convey a similar message to a US envoy conducting shuttle missions to Beirut.

The Israeli military announced on Saturday it was sending some reservists home as part of what top commander Lieutenant-General Herzi Halevi has deemed a "reconfiguration" of forces.

Reporting by Reuters.