Earlier, Israel had prevented thousands of displaced Palestinians from returning home, leaving large numbers of Gazans camping on the streets. A Palestinian youth trying to go home was shot dead by Israeli forces and some others were injured.
Israel announced on Sunday night that the dispute over a ceasefire and hostage agreement with Hamas in Gaza has been resolved. Hamas will release six more hostages in two batches this week. Following this announcement, the Jewish State allowed hundreds of thousands of displaced Gazans to return to their homes through the Netzarim corridor from Monday morning.
According to media reports, Hamas’ Interior Ministry in the Gaza Strip has confirmed that displaced Palestinians have started returning to northern Gaza after a breakthrough in talks with Israel on Sunday night. “The movement of displaced Palestinians has begun from the western part of the Netzarim checkpoint towards Gaza City and the northern part of the Gaza Strip along Al-Rashid Road,” the official said. Hamas announced that it would release six hostages this week, including Arbel Yehud.
Israel had stopped the return of Palestinians to Gaza over the issue of the release of its citizen Yehud. According to a statement from the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office, “After intensive negotiations led by PM Benjamin Netanyahu, Hamas withdrew its steps and will complete an additional phase of releasing the hostages this Thursday.” The statement clarified that civilian Arbel Yehud, soldier Agam Berger and one other hostage would be released on Thursday, while three other hostages would be released on Saturday.
Additionally, Israel said it had received a status list from Hamas regarding all hostages to be released in the initial phase of the agreement. ‘Under these agreements, Israel will allow Gazans to cross into the northern strip from tomorrow morning,’ the statement confirmed. Earlier, Israel had stopped thousands of displaced Palestinians from returning to their homes. After this, from Saturday night, an increased number of Gazans took to the streets and were waiting to go to Gaza. A Palestinian youth trying to go home was shot dead by Israeli forces while some others were injured.
This entire controversy actually arose over the release of Israeli citizen Arbel Yehud. When the prisoner exchange took place for the second time on Saturday, it seemed that the events were happening as per the terms of the ceasefire agreement, but suddenly an announcement by Israel changed everything. Hamas released four Israeli female soldiers on Saturday, in exchange for Israel releasing 200 Palestinian prisoners.
Israel then announced that it would not allow Gazans to enter the northern Gaza Strip until arrangements were made for the release of civilian Arbel Yehud. According to media reports, Yehud was to be included in Saturday’s release list. It is still unclear why his name was omitted. Whereas Hamas claimed that Yehud is alive and he will be released next Saturday. According to Israel, Hamas has violated the agreement by releasing female hostage soldiers before all surviving civilian female captives.
