Gaza City, Gaza Strip (AP) – Tens of thousands of Palestinians embarked on the most destructed gas area on Monday under a fragile ceasefire after Israel first opened north north of the first weeks of the 15-month war with Hamas. In the meantime, Israel has announced that eight hostages to be released in the coming weeks are dead.
Massive crowds of Palestinians, some holding babies or pushing wheelchairs, were walking with their belongings along the seaside road by dramatic reversal of the mass eviction from the north, that many were afraid that Israel would do constantly.
The footage of the Associated Press showed that people still move north eight hours after the crossing of the crossing. They were observed by Israeli tanks on a nearby hill.
The Palestinians, who have been sheltered in tent and tangted schools, are ready to return to their homes, although they are probably damaged or destroyed.
Yasmin Abu Ambsha, the mother of three, said she had traveled 6 kilometers (nearly 4 miles) to reach her home in Gaza, where she found him damaged but habitable. She also saw her younger sister for the first time in more than a year.
“It was a long trip, but happy,” she said.
Many saw their return as an act of steadfastness after Israel’s military campaign, which began in response to the Hamas army attack on October 7, 2023 against South Israel. The return is also seen as a rejection of the proposal of US President Donald Trump that a large number of Palestinians are displaced to Egypt and Jordan, which these countries reject.
The families of the dead hostages are informed
Whether the offers were still alive inside Gaza was a heartbreaking question for waiting families who pushed the Israel government to reach a deal to release them, fearing that time was running out.
Prior to Monday’s announcement, Israel believes that at least 35 of about 90 hostages taken during the attack on October 7 and are still being held in Gaza, were dead.
Government spokesman David Menzer told reporters that a list received overnight by Hamas about the status of the 33 hostages, released under the first phase of fire, showed that eight were dead and 25 were alive.
The families are informed, he said.
The termination of the fire is aimed at winding the most deadly and most destructive war led by Israel and Hamas and ensures the release of dozens of hostages captured in the attack on October 7th. The fighters killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, with this attack and abducted another 250.
Israel reacted with air and ground war, which killed over 47,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. He does not say how many of the dead were fighters. Israel says he has killed over 17,000 fighters without providing evidence.
“The joy of returning”
Ismail Abu Mater, the father of four who waited three days near the crossing point before moving to North Gaza, describes the scenes of merriment on the other side, with people singing, praying and crying as they were reunited with Relatives.
“This is the joy of the return,” said Abu Mater, whose relatives were among the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, fled or were expelled from what Israel was now during the 1948 war around his creation. “We had thought we wouldn’t come back like our ancestors.”
The opening has been delayed in two days because of a dispute between Hamas and Israel, which says that the belligerent group has changed the order of the hostages, which it has released in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. Local medical officials said the Israeli forces had opened fire on the waiting crowd and killed several Palestinians over the weekend. The Israeli military said it had fired warning shots when the groups approached, which it considered a threat.
The mediators have resolved the dispute overnight.
Hamas said the return was “Victory for our people and a declaration of failure and defeat for the (Israeli) occupation and transfer plans.”
In the early days of the war, Israel ordered the evacuation to the north and sealed it shortly after the ground troops moved.
About a million people fled south in October 2023, while hundreds of thousands remained north, in which they had some of the worst battles and the worst destruction of the war. A total of about 90% of 2.3 million Gaza people have been displaced.
“This is our house, four stories. You can’t see them,” said a man who gestures a pile of ruins, “AP said in a video.
A hostage dispute shakes a week’s termination of fire
The Palestinians crossed on foot without inspection through part of the corridor of an unobtrusive, war zone, distracting the territory south of the town of Gaza, which Israel carried away at the beginning of the war. A vehicle checkpoint later opened on the main highway of Gaza North-South, where traffic was supported for about 3 kilometers (2 miles).
Under the fire termination agreement, vehicles must be inspected for weapons before entering the north, but the mechanism for this was not clear immediately.
Israel had delayed the discovery of the intersection, which had to happen over the weekend, saying it would not allow the Palestinians to the north while a female civilian hostage Arbel Yehud was not released. Israel said it should have been released to four young female soldiers who were released on Saturday.
Israel also accused Hamas of not providing information about the hostages to be released. Hamas, for his part, accused Israel of breaching the agreement without finding the intersection.
Qatar, a key intermediary with Hamas, announced early Monday that an agreement had been reached to release Yehoud, along with two other hostages until Friday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that the message of hostages – which will include female soldier Agam Berger – will be held on Thursday. The other three hostages must be released on Saturday, as planned earlier. Hamas also delivered information about the hostages to be released in the first phase.
Defense Minister Israel Katz said that anyone who violates the cessation of the fire or threatens the Israeli forces “will bear the full expenses”. The Israeli military warned the Palestinians not to approach its forces, which withdrew in the buffer zones inside Gaza.
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Shurafa reported from Vadi Gaza, Gaza strip and Maggie from Cairo. Associated Press reporters Joe Kraus in Dubai, United Arab Emirates and Mohammed Jajuh and Abdel Karim Hannah in Vadi Gaza, Strip Gaza, contributed.