Gaza’s First Day of The Mideast War: An Israeli-Military Interaction Among Palestinians and Their Families in the Light of the Gaza Strip Resolved
In Gaza, a dispute over Hamas’ return of a specific hostage had led to the Israeli military blocking the return of Palestinian residents to the north of Gaza.
Israeli troops have rescued eight hostages alive, and recovered the bodies of dozens of others, a small number of which were killed during Israeli military operations.
The first six-week phase of the deal, mediated by the U.S., Qatar and Egypt, took effect last weekend and is designed to see almost 2,000 Palestinian prisoners swapped for 33 Israeli hostages, with women and children prioritized.
Almost all of the 2.1 million residents of Gaza have had to leave their homes because of Israel’s ground offensive in the territory. People who have recently returned to their homes have encountered piles of rubble.
Mohammed al-Hindi, a deputy head of the Islamic Jihad militant group, said in an interview that Israel had put forward a plan to delay the return of residents, so it agreed to release Yehud before next Saturday to remove the pretext.
A senior military official in Hamas, who issues statements under a nom du guerre, Abu Ahmed, said the mediators — the U.S., Qatar and Egypt — had been given guarantees that Yehud was “alive and in good health.”
President Trump separately provoked strong reaction across the Middle East when he suggested that a large proportion of Gaza’s residents could be moved to Egypt and Jordan at least temporarily.
Egypt has previously pushed back on such a suggestion, and both the Jordanian government, the Palestinian Authority and militant groups including Hamas and Islamic Jihad rejected the suggestion, as did Arab-Israeli lawmakers.
Israel said it had not yet withdrawn forces from the area — despite its earlier assurances it would do so this weekend — because Lebanese army units were not yet available to replace their positions, and it was not sure that Hezbollah had removed all its fighters from the area.
Under the ceasefire’s terms that took effect on Jan. 19, Israel has pulled its forces from several parts of Gaza, and continues to warn residents to keep their distance from its military units.
Israeli troops have blocked thousands of displaced Palestinians from traveling back to their homes in the northern parts of the Gaza Strip, amid Israeli accusations that Hamas had breached the ceasefire deal by delaying the release of specific hostages.
The U.S. has been helping to monitor the Lebanon ceasefire, and a statement from the White House said the agreement’s terms had now been extended until Feb. 18. This will provide more time for Israeli units to make way for Lebanese Army troops who are advancing to replace them, and to withdraw beyond the existing border between the two countries.
In Lebanon, the Israeli military had fired on protesters who were trying to return to their homes from where they were supposed to have left by Sunday.
They will include Yehud, a civilian who had become the center of dispute this weekend after Hamas officials had insisted she was in fact an Israeli soldier and so would not be prioritized for release with other civilian women and children. Also slated for release Thursday is Agam Berger, a female soldier. The identity of the third hostage to be released was not made public.
“There was a crisis which we were able to overcome with good dialogue and discussion,” he told reporters. This is a sign that we all need to stay positive.” He praised both the Israeli government as well as the prime minister of gas-rich gulf state of qavisa.
The disagreements that Israel and militant groups have had over the years showed low levels of trust between the warring parties. The ceasefire deals in the Middle East have been successfully kept alive by last-ditch negotiations, according to President Trump’s special envoy.
The scenes of huge crowds of people coming back to Gaza on foot came as the U.S. and Qatar worked to preserve ceasefire agreements between Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Israeli forces on Monday morning opened the Netzarim corridor that separates north and south Gaza, with crowds in the thousands streaming back to their abandoned homes in the north.