By james art 
Palestinians began returning north of the war-torn Strip on Monday after Israel and Hamas said they had reached a deal to free six more hostages.
The breakthrough preserves a fragile ceasefire in the Israel-Hama war that has devastated the Gaza Strip and displaced nearly all of its residents, paving the way for more hostage-for-hostage swaps under a deal aimed at ending the more than 15-month conflict.
Israel is preventing huge crowds of Palestinians from returning to their homes in northern Gaza, accusing Hamas of violating the ceasefire by failing to free civilian female hostages.
On Monday morning, crowds of Palestinians began making their way north, an official at the Hamas Interior Ministry told AFP.
“The crossing of displaced Palestinians has begun,” the official said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said earlier that a deal had been reached to release three hostages on Thursday and three more on Saturday.
Hamas confirmed the agreement in its own statement on Monday.
Meanwhile, Palestinian leaders slammed a plan floated by US President Donald Trump to “cleanse” Gaza, vowing to resist any effort to forcibly displace residents of the war-torn territory.
Trump said Gaza had become a “place for demolition,” adding that he had spoken with Jordan’s King Abdullah II about relocating the Palestinians.
“I would like Egypt to take the people. And I would like Jordan to take the people,” Trump told reporters.
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, who is based in Israel’s West Bank, “expressed his strong rejection and condemnation of any projects” aimed at displacing Palestinians from Gaza, his office said.
Bassem Naim, a member of Hamas’ political bureau, told AFP the Palestinians would “simplify such projects” as they have done to similar plans “for displacement and alternative homelands over the decades”.
Islamic Jihad, which fights alongside Hamas in Gaza, called Trump’s idea “deplorable.”
For Palestinians, any attempt to move them out of Gaza would evoke dark memories of what the Arab world calls the Nakba, or catastrophe, the mass displacement of Palestinians during Israel’s creation in 1948.
“We are telling Trump and the whole world: we will not leave Palestine or Gaza, no matter what happens,” said displaced Gaza resident Rashad al-Naji.
– Jordan, Egypt reject displacement –
Trump floated the idea to reporters Saturday aboard Air Force ONE: “You’re talking about probably a million and a half people and we’re just cleaning it all up.”
The relocation of Gaza’s roughly 2.4 million residents could be “temporary or it could be long-term,” he said.
Israel’s top finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich — who has opposed the truce deal and expressed support for rebuilding Israeli settlements in Gaza — called Trump’s proposal a “great idea.”
The Arab League rejected the idea, warning against “attempts to uproot the Palestinian people from their land.”
“The forced displacement and expulsion of people from their land can only be called ethnic cleansing,” the league said in a statement.
Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said “our rejection of Palestinian displacement is firm and will not change. Jordan is for the Jordanians and Palestine is for the Palestinians.”
Egypt’s foreign ministry said it rejected any violation of the Palestinians’ “inalienable rights”.
Israel had said it would prevent Palestinians from crossing until Arbel Yehud, a civilian woman hostage, was released. She is among those returning for a return on Thursday, according to Netanyahu’s office.
Hamas said blocking the return to the north also constituted a violation of the truce, adding that it had provided “all the necessary guarantees” for Yehud’s release.
Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee said on Monday that residents would be able to return to their feet starting at 07:00. (0500 GMT) and by car at 9:00 AM.
– “terrible” humanitarian situation –
During the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire, 33 hostages are supposed to be released in phased releases over six weeks in exchange for about 1,900 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
The latest swap saw four Israeli female hostages, all soldiers, and 200 prisoners, almost all Palestinians, released on Saturday – the second such exchange during the fragile truce entering its second week.
Danny Miran, whose hostage son Omri is not scheduled for release in the first phase, demonstrated outside Netanyahu’s office in Jerusalem on Sunday.
“We want the agreement to go ahead and for them to get their children back as quickly as possible – and all at once,” he said.
The truce has brought an influx of food, fuel, medicine and other aid to the rubble-strewn gas, but the UN says “the humanitarian situation remains dire”.
Of the 251 hostages taken in the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack that ignited the war, 87 remain in Gaza, including 34 the military says are dead.
The Hamas attack left 1,210 people dead, mostly civilians, according to AFP, based on official Israeli figures.
Israel’s retaliation by Israel has killed at least 47,306 people in Gaza, the majority civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run health ministry in the territory, which the United Nations considers reliable.
Burs-Tym/RSC