By james art 
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel on Monday began allowing thousands of Palestinians to return to the badly damaged northern Gaza Strip for the first time since the opening weeks of the 15-month war with Hamas, in line with a fragile ceasefire on the fire.
The opening was delayed by two days because of a dispute between Hamas and Israel, who said the militant group had changed the order of hostages it had released in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. Mediators resolved the dispute overnight.
Palestinians who have been sheltering in squalid tent camps and schools-turned-shelters for more than a year are eager to return to their homes – even knowing they may have been damaged or destroyed. Many feared that Israel would make their exodus permanent and expressed similar concerns about the idea floated by President Donald Trump to resettle large numbers of Palestinians in Egypt and Jordan.
Ismail Abu Mater, a father of four who waited three days before crossing with his family, described scenes of jubilation on the other side, with people singing, praying and crying as they were reunited with relatives.
“This is the joy of return,” said Abu Mater, whose family was among the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled or were driven from what is now Israel during the 1948 war. around its creation. “We thought we wouldn’t come back like our ancestors.”
Hamas said the return was “a victory for our people and a declaration of failure and defeat for the (Israeli) occupation and transfer plans.”
The ceasefire aims to end the deadliest and most destructive war ever between Israel and Hamas and secure the release of dozens of hostages taken in the militants’ October 7, 2023 attack that sparked the fighting.
Israel ordered a massive evacuation of the north in the early days of the war and sealed it off shortly after ground troops entered. About one million people fled south in October 2023, while hundreds of thousands remained in the north, which saw some of the heaviest fighting and most destruction of the war.
Defense Minister Israel Katz said Israel would continue to enforce the ceasefire and that anyone who violated it or threatened Israeli forces “will bear the full price.”
“We will not allow a return to reality from October 7,” he wrote on the X platform.
The hostage standoff rocked the week-long ceasefire
Israel delayed the opening of the crossing, which was due to take place over the weekend, saying it would not allow Palestinians to cross north until a civilian hostage, Arbel Yehud, was released. He also accused Hamas of not providing information on whether the remaining hostages to be released in the first phase were alive or dead.
Hamas in turn accused Israel of violating the agreement by not opening the border crossing.
The Gulf country of Qatar, a key mediator with Hamas, announced early Monday that an agreement had been reached to release Yehud along with two other hostages before Friday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement that the release of the hostages – which will include female soldier Agham Berger – would take place on Thursday. This release will be in addition to the one scheduled for next Saturday, when three hostages are due to be released.
Hamas also handed over a list of required information on hostages to be released in the six-week first phase of the ceasefire.
Beginning at 7 a.m., Palestinians were allowed to walk unchecked through part of the so-called Netzarim Corridor, a military zone bisecting territory south of Gaza City that Israel carved out at the start of the war. A vehicle checkpoint with a screening mechanism was to be opened later, details of which were not immediately known.
A second and more difficult phase is ahead
Under the first phase of the ceasefire, which runs until early March, Hamas must release a total of 33 hostages in exchange for the release of nearly 2,000 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. The militants have released seven hostages, including four female soldiers, under the current truce in exchange for more than 300 prisoners, including many serving life sentences for deadly attacks on Israelis.
The second — and much more difficult — phase of the agreement has yet to be agreed. Hamas says it will not release the remaining roughly 60 hostages unless Israel ends the war, while Netanyahu says he remains committed to destroying the militant group and ending its nearly 18-year rule over Gaza.
Hamas started the war when thousands of its fighters invaded southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping another 250. About 90 hostages are still in Gaza, and Israel believes about a third are dead.
Israel’s air and ground war has killed more than 47,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health. It did not say how many of the dead were combatants. Israel claims to have killed over 17,000 militants without providing evidence.
Israeli bombing and ground operations have displaced about 90 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million people, often multiple times, and leveled entire neighborhoods.
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Magdi reported from Cairo and Kraus from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
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