JERUSALEM

Israel plans to shift to a "long" third phase of the war in the Gaza Strip, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Monday.

Israeli forces will shift from the "intense maneuvering phase of the war” toward “different types of special operations," Gallant told The Wall Street Journal, without providing details or dates for this phase.

The next phase in the war "will last for a longer time," he said.

While Israel has not officially announced the shift to the third phase of the war, Israeli media reports suggested that it will be on the table of meetings between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Israeli officials in Tel Aviv on Tuesday.

Last week, the Israeli public broadcaster KAN revealed that the army shifted to the third stage of the war in some areas in the Gaza Strip with limited forces.

The third phase includes targeted airstrikes, withdrawal of forces and establishment of a buffer zone near the Gaza border, according to local media.

Gallant threatened to launch a military offensive similar to the Gaza onslaught against Hezbollah group in Lebanon.

“They see what is happening in Gaza,” the defense minister said. “They know we can copy-paste to Beirut.”

Hezbollah and Israel have been exchanging fire along the Lebanese-Israeli border since the Oct. 7 cross-border attack by Hamas, in the deadliest clashes since the two sides fought a full-scale war in 2006.

Israel has launched air and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by Palestinian resistance group Hamas on Oct. 7.

At least 23,084 Palestinians have since been killed and 58,926 others injured, according to Gaza’s health authorities, while nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.

The Israeli onslaught has left Gaza in ruins, with 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure damaged or destroyed, and nearly 2 million residents displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio in Ankara