Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians streamed back to northern Gaza on Monday after a deal was struck between Israel and Hamas to return Arbel Yehoud along with two other hostages on Thursday.
Originally, Yehoud and other Israeli civilian hostages were due to be returned on Saturday, but when Hamas changed the returned hostages to four soldiers, Jerusalem penalized the group by delaying opening the Netzarim Corridor for Palestinians to return to northern Gaza.
The deal means that Israel will get three “bonus” hostages early, along with the three who are due to be returned this Saturday.
It was unclear exactly how this would change the hostage return schedule, but one possibility was that instead of Hamas on March 1 returning 12 hostages from October 7, 2023, plus two hostages from 2014-2015, they would return nine hostages from October 7 at that point.
In any event, the return of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, with some expecting around 650,000 to return, but the pre-war total being over one million, signaled a fundamental change on the ground that has not occurred since fall 2023 when most Palestinians were evacuated to southern Gaza.
When The Jerusalem Post asked the IDF if the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians going north were being checked for weapons, the military astonishingly said this was no longer its responsibility, given that it had withdrawn from the Netzarim Corridor. They referred the issue to the Prime Minister’s Office.
There are reports that private US companies are doing some checks. A PMO spokesman confirmed that cars were being checked for weapons, but said nothing about those on foot.
A mass of people, some holding infants in their arms or carrying bundles of belongings on their shoulders, headed north on foot, along a road running by the Mediterranean Sea shore.
“It’s like I was born again and we were victorious again,” said Palestinian mother, Umm Mohammed Ali, part of the miles-long throng that processed slowly up the coastal road.
Witnesses said the first residents arrived in Gaza City after the first crossing point in central Gaza opened at 7 a.m. Another crossing opened around three hours later, letting in vehicles.
“My heart is beating, I thought I would never come back,” said Osama, 50, a public servant and father of five, as he arrived in Gaza City. “Whether the ceasefire succeeds or not, we will never leave Gaza City and the north again, even if Israel would send a tank for each one of us, no more displacement.”
Having been repeatedly displaced over 15 months of war, cheers erupted at shelters and tent encampments when families heard the news that the crossings would be opened.
“No sleep, I have everything packed and ready to go at the first light of day,” said Ghada, a mother of five.
“At least we are going back home; now I can say [the] war is over, and I hope it will stay calm,” she told Reuters via a chat app.
Hamas officials and ordinary Gazans have rejected a suggestion from US President Donald Trump that Jordan and Egypt should take in Palestinians from the war-ravaged enclave, rekindling long-standing Palestinian fears about being driven permanently from their homes.
Children in warm jackets and carrying backpacks walked hand in hand, men pushed the elderly in wheelchairs, and families posed for selfies as Hamas-hired officials in red vests directed them along the coastal road.
And what about the hostages?
Hamas has also provided a long-awaited list of all hostages to be released during the first six-week phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement, stating their condition.
On Monday, a Hamas official told Reuters the group had handed over to mediators a list that showed that 25 of 33 hostages scheduled for release in the first phase are alive. The figure of 25 included the seven hostages released since the truce began on January 19.
Israeli authorities have previously said they believe most of the 33 are alive.
More than 47,000 Palestinians have been killed in the assault on Gaza, according to Hamas’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and fighters. The IDF has said up to 20,000 Hamas terrorists have been killed.
Much of Gaza now lies in ruins. The Hamas-run Gaza government media office said returnees to the north need at least 135,000 tents and shelters as they try to reestablish their lives in the landscape of rubble of their former homes.
According to the ceasefire, only unarmed people would be allowed to return north. Vehicles would be X-rayed to detect weapons and explosives. The IDF warned Gazans not to transfer weapons with them or approach troops anywhere.
Residents crossing back north said Egyptian security personnel were supervising the return of Palestinians in vehicles along the Salahuddin Road, the main thoroughfare running north to south, with Hamas police officers close by.
“At the Netzarim junction, young Egyptian Army members are supervising the car X-ray machine, and they are dealing with the returnees in a loving way. They are facilitating the passage of people crossing, and the whole process took a few minutes,” said Mustafa Ibrahim, a Gaza resident.
In Lebanon, health authorities said IDF forces killed two people on Monday and wounded 17 in southern Lebanon when they tried to cross through IDF defense lines within Lebanese territory.
Already on Sunday, the IDF had reportedly killed around 22 people in southern Lebanon and wounded around 120.
It was unclear if the reduction in deaths, wounded persons, and general confrontations was a sign that the Lebanese halted trying to cross through IDF defense lines within southern Lebanon now that the US – overnight between Sunday and Monday – announced an extension of the IDF withdrawal timeline to February 18 or whether they are being sent by Hezbollah to maintain pressure and instability against Israel.
On Sunday night, the IDF issued a detailed statement outlining how it had tried to warn Lebanese civilians to stay clear of their defense lines and tried to use distancing fire to keep them away, rather than lethal fire.
By press time on Monday night, the IDF had not responded to the allegations of shooting unarmed Lebanese who approached their positions.
However, the IDF did confirm that two companies of border policemen were being transferred from the West Bank to IDF positions in southern Lebanon to utilize their non-lethal means for crowd dispersal.
Also, on Monday The Times reported that Lebanese military officials had been leaking Israeli intelligence to Hezbollah to help the terror group move its weapons away when they were detected by the IDF.
It was unclear if this exposure of Lebanese military collusion with Hezbollah, as opposed to mere slow deployment and incompetence, would lead to further delays of the IDF withdrawal beyond February 18 or if the Trump administration would insist on a full Israeli withdrawal by then.
Already in late December, Israel had withdrawn from a substantial portion of southern Lebanon, but on Sunday it identified dozens of villages which it was still holding on to pending the Lebanese Army acting more seriously to prevent Hezbollah from returning to southern Lebanon as required under the November 27 ceasefire deal.
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