Despite Israel pulling most of its ground troops out of Gaza, that does not mean the war is over, warned IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi on Sunday.

“We are fighting this war differently; it is different from its predecessors,” Halevi said in a statement marking six months since the start of the war.

“The war in Gaza continues, and we are far from stopping. Senior Hamas officials are still in hiding. We’ll get to them sooner or later. We are making progress, continuing to kill more terrorists and commanders and destroy more terror infrastructure, including last night.”

Over the weekend, the IDF withdrew the last of its patrolling ground forces from southern Gaza, leaving just one brigade to secure a main corridor splitting the enclave. According to Halevi, the IDF can quickly get back to full operational form at any time and address Hamas’s last remaining stronghold in Rafah.

“We will not leave Hamas brigades active in any part of the Strip. We have plans, and we will act when we decide. At the same time as the offensive effort, we allow the entry of humanitarian aid into the Strip. Hamas’s interest is to present a humanitarian crisis in Gaza and to press for an end to the war,” Halevi said.

During the peak of Israel’s war against Hamas immediately following the Oct. 7 massacre, between 30,000 and 40,000 IDF troops were deployed in Gaza, but now only a few thousand remain.