Israeli military officials said Monday they were preparing for residents of southern communities that have largely been empty since October 7 to begin returning home soon, amid indications the fighting may soon shift into a lower gear after three months of punishing all-out war.

The announcement by the Home Front Command came a day after the Israel Defense Forces said it was drawing down some forces in Gaza as it prepared to shift toward a lengthy, lower-intensity stage of the conflict.

While Palestinians reported seeing tanks withdraw from some parts of northern Gaza, fighting continued to rage in other parts of the Strip.

Israelis in communities within seven kilometers (4.3 miles) of Gaza were mostly evacuated in the immediate aftermath of the October 7 assault on southern Israel by the terror group, which rules the Strip, when terrorists massacred 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped some 240 people to Gaza.

While some have returned since then, many have stayed away due to the intense fighting nearby and fears of a fresh mass infiltration, as well as daily rocket attacks, with evacuees hosted at hotels or at kibbutz guesthouses in other parts of the country.

The communities closest to Gaza will remain closed for the time being, with some of the hardest hit largely uninhabitable, but those at least four kilometers (2.5 miles) away will start bringing residents back, the Home Front Command said Monday, without announcing a timeline.

Residents of Mavki’im, Gvar’am, Dorot, Yachini, Bror Hayil, as well as kibbutz Yad Mordechai — which is three kilometers (two miles) away but had requested to return — will be the first to return, according to the announcement.

While terrorists reached as far as Ofakim, some 22 kilometers (14 miles) from the Strip, during the October 7 onslaught, most of the communities heaviest affected were within three or four kilometers of the Strip.

Rocket fire on the area has lessened since the start of the war, though there are still near-daily attacks.

Some have expressed reluctance to return to their homes in once-placid agricultural communities with war still close at hand. The military said it would attempt to reposition some artillery batteries to cut down on noise, and would bolster local security teams with better equipment and training.

Israel responded to the October 7 massacres with a military campaign – including a major ground incursion – aimed at destroying Hamas, removing it from power in Gaza, and rescuing the hostages.

Visiting Kibbutz Be’eri, where the burnt-out husks of homes testify to the horrors visited upon the community during the October 7 onslaught, 13-year-old Oran Sharabi said on Monday she was afraid to be in the kibbutz where she grew up but wanted to raise awareness for the 129 hostages still being held.

“I’m coping with the fear because the scariest thing to me is that my dad, Yossi, who’s being held hostage in Gaza, is still there,” Sharabi told a few dozen journalists gathered there Monday.

Raaya Rotem, who was among 105 civilians released during a weeklong truce, recalled the scarcity of food.

“We divided [a single orange] among ourselves. Each of us got a tiny slice,” she said. “Time is running out for the hostages. Food is running out. Water is running out. We need to bring the hostages back.”

Amid its operations, the IDF said it eliminated Adel Msammah, the company commander of Hamas’s elite Nukhba force, in central Gaza’s Deir al Balah.

It said Msammah commanded the Nukhba terrorists who carried out the attack on Kissufim on October 7, and directed other Hamas members to attack the border communities of Be’eri and Nirim.

“After that, Msammah led fighting in the Gaza Strip against our forces,” the IDF said.

Meanwhile, in northern Gaza, reservists of the Yiftah Brigade raided several Hamas and Islamic Jihad sites in Gaza City’s Shejaiya neighborhood, locating a cache of weapons in a mosque, the IDF said.

During the operation, Hamas operatives launched mortars at the forces. The IDF said a drone identified the cell and struck them.

In southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, troops of the Commando Brigade identified a Hamas operative launching rockets, and directed an aircraft to strike him, the IDF said.

Also overnight, the Air Force and Navy continued to strike sites across the Strip, aiding the ground forces with their maneuvers against Hamas.

In the area of Gaza City’s Daraj and Tuffah neighborhoods, the IDF said it obtained footage from a camera of a Hamas gunman who was killed by troops.

It added that over the past week, the 401st Armored Brigade and Givati Brigade’s Shaked Battalion have been battling Hamas’s Daraj-Tuffah battalion.

In one incident, the IDF said troops received intelligence of Hamas gunmen in a building and raided the site, killing them.

During scans, the soldiers recovered a camera used by Hamas to film their attacks on IDF troops. The military said the videos show how Hamas uses civilian sites to launch RPGs at Israeli tanks operating in the Strip.

The Hamas health ministry said that at least 21,978 people have been killed in the Palestinian territory since war with Israel broke out. Figures issued by Hamas cannot be independently verified and include both civilians and terror operatives killed in Gaza, including as a consequence of terror groups’ own rocket misfires. Israel says it has killed some 8,500 Hamas and other terror group operatives in Gaza.

The war has displaced some 85 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.