Tens of thousands of Palestinians on Monday started returning to their homes in mostly devastated northern Gaza after 15 months of war between Hamas militants and Israel.
Israel lifted the closure of northern Gaza on Monday, 48 hours later than expected, and in line with the fragile cease-fire agreement reached in mid-January. The opening of the so-called Netzarim corridor to northern Gaza was delayed as Israel demanded that Hamas frees Arbel Yehud, a female Israeli hostage, in the second round of prisoner swap. Hamas agreed to return Arbel Yehud and more hostages on Thursday and Saturday.
Starting at 7 a.m. local time on Monday, Palestinians were allowed to cross on foot without inspection through part of Netzarim corridor.
Israel had divided Gaza into to parts with Netzarim corridor, a military zone, bisecting the strip and blocked the entry to the northern part where it carried out ground operations in the early days of the 15-month-long war with Hamas. The war was in response to the large-scale border attack by Hamas on October 7, 2023. Around a million people fled to the south in October 2023 as Israel gave evacuation order, while hundreds of thousands remained in the north, which had some of the heaviest fighting and worst destruction of the war as
Last week US President Donald Trump floated the idea that Palestinians could be resettled in neighbouring Jordan and Egypt, raising fears that the displacement of Gaza residents might be permanent.
Hamas called the return of Gaza residents "a victory for our people, and a declaration of failure and defeat for the Israeli occupation and transfer plans."
