The IDF has reduced the number of troops deployed in eastern Rafah and the Givati Brigade left the Gaza Strip overnight from the area where it had been operating for the last three weeks.
The military explained, according to a report by Ynet, that this was done to allow the troops to return to Gaza and Rafah at a later date 'refreshed' after weeks of combat. Four combat teams from the 162nd Division remain.
According to the report, the Givati Brigade's departure from the southern city in the Gaza Strip comes amid reports that Israel will allow the reopening of the Rafah Crossing by the Egyptian army from the southern side of the crossing, in order to allow additional humanitarian aid income, and accordingly, Israeli forces will be removed from the area.
The withdrawal of the forces comes after the International Court of Justice in The Hague (ICJ) ruled on Friday that Israel must "immediately halt its military offensive, and any other action in the Rafah Governorate, which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part," there is some debate among legal scholars over what precisely this order means."