Middle East live: Palestinians start to return to homes in north Gaza after Israeli hostage deal reached

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Middle East live: Palestinians start to return to homes in north Gaza after Israeli hostage deal reached

Palestinians begin return to north Gaza

Displaced Palestinians have started returning to north Gaza, the territory’s interior ministry has confirmed as images posted on social media showed thousands of people streaming along sandy roadways fringed by the devastation of more than a year of Israeli airstrikes.

“The passage of displaced Palestinians has begun along the Al-Rashid Road via the western part of the Netzarim checkpoint towards Gaza City and the northern part” of the Gaza Strip, an official told the news agency AFP.

آلاف النازحين يعودون إلى مدينة غزة وشمال القطاع عبر شارع الرشيد الساحلي pic.twitter.com/L4HcmmioDU

— أنس الشريف Anas Al-Sharif (@AnasAlSharif0) January 27, 2025

Thousands of Palestinians had headed to the Netzarim Corridor – a strip of land Israel has occupied that cuts the territory in two – on Saturday in anticipation of being allowed to cross back to their homes in the north as agreed under this month’s ceasefire deal.

But Israeli troops set up roadblocks and fired on some people trying to return, killing at least one person. It accused Hamas of failing to uphold the agreement by not including Arbel Yehoud, an Israeli civilian, in Saturday’s hostage release.

Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that several people were critically injured in the Israeli attack on the crowd of civilians waiting to cross the corridor near Nuseirat refugee camp.

Hamas said that blocking returns to the north also amounted to a truce violation, adding it had provided “all the necessary guarantees” for Yehoud’s release.

In the early hours of Monday, mediator Qatar said a deal had been reached that would see Yehoud released before Friday along with two other hostages and that Palestinians would be allowed to cross the corridor from early on Monday.

Key events

Itamar Ben-Gvir, the far-right Israeli MP who served as Israel’s national security minister until he resigned in protest at the ceasefire agreement, has called the opening of the Netzarim Corridor “another humiliating part of the reckless deal”. In a post on X he wrote:

This is not what “complete victory” looks like – this is what complete surrender looks like. The heroic IDF soldiers did not fight and give their lives in the Strip to make these images possible. We must return to war – and destroy!

Ben-Gvir, was convicted in 2007 of racist incitement against Arabs and backing a group considered by Israel and the US to be a terrorist organisation, has repeatedly called for Israelis to resettle Gaza and for the “voluntary” resettlement of Palestinians elsewhere.

A snippet of analysis here from Mairav Zonszein, a senior Israel analyst at the International Crisis Group think tank, on the return of Palestinians to northern Gaza. In a post on X, she writes:

This is significant. When Israel began depopulating northern Gaza, it seemed like they would never let people return, that Israel would remain and ultimately build settlements. Not letting people go back was one of Israel’s major bargaining chips. Now it’s gone.

Holding onto north Gaza was not for security reasons, but b/c it would be harder to resume combat. This also means that if Hamas wants to tamper with hostage exchange, it has more room to maneuver because it’s already gotten the return to the north early on.

As Palestinians who are on foot begin their journey north, others who are travelling by vehicle still have another 45 minutes to wait until Israeli troops will allow them to cross the so-called Netzarim Corridor that they created to split the territory in two. Thousands are waiting to cross:

Photograph: Hatem Khaled/Reuters

Hamas has issued a statement describing the return of displaced Palestinians to northern Gaza as “a victory” for the Palestinians and a defeat for the Israelis, Al Jazeera reports.

Hamas said the return of Palestinians to the areas from which they were displaced confirmed their link to the land once again and “proves the failure of the occupation to achieve the aggressive goals of displacing people and breaking their steadfast will”.

UN human rights experts and activists have condemned the arrest of an American, pro-Palestinian journalist in the Swiss city of Zurich, saying it raised concerns about freedom of speech. Reuters reports:

Ali Abunimah, the executive director of online publication Electronic Intifada – which calls itself “Palestine’s weapon of mass instruction” – was arrested by Swiss police on Saturday ahead of a speech in Zurich, the organisation said in a statement.

Swiss police confirmed that a 53-year-old American had been arrested, citing an entry ban, and said further measures under its immigration law were being considered.

The UN special rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, Irene Khan, called the arrest “shocking news” and urged Switzerland to investigate and release him in a post on the X social media platform.

“The climate surrounding freedom of speech in Europe is becoming increasingly toxic, and we should all be concerned,” said Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied territories.

Pro-Palestinian advocacy group Swiss Action for Human Rights launched a petition to release Abunimah on Sunday.

A spokesperson for the US embassy in Bern said it was providing appropriate consular assistance after seeing reports of the arrest of a US citizen, declining further comment.

In a statement on its website, Electronic Intifada said the arrest appeared to be “part of a growing backlash from western governments against expressions of solidarity with the Palestinian people.”

It noted that last year, several activists and journalists in Britain were arrested, raided or charged using “counter-terror” powers, including Asa Winstanley, an associate editor with The Electronic Intifada. Winstanley has not been charged with any crime.

Some of the first images of Palestinians returning to their homes in northern Gaza are beginning to appear on the wires:

Photograph: Ramadan Abed/Reuters

Photograph: Mohammed Salem/Reuters

Palestinians begin return to north Gaza

آلاف النازحين يعودون إلى مدينة غزة وشمال القطاع عبر شارع الرشيد الساحلي pic.twitter.com/L4HcmmioDU

— أنس الشريف Anas Al-Sharif (@AnasAlSharif0) January 27, 2025

Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that several people were critically injured in the Israeli attack on the crowd of civilians waiting to cross the corridor near Nuseirat refugee camp.

Hamas said that blocking returns to the north also amounted to a truce violation, adding it had provided “all the necessary guarantees” for Yehoud’s release.

Opening summary

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the Middle East.

Displaced Palestinians are expected to begin returning to their homes in northern Gaza on Monday, two days later than scheduled, after an agreement was reached between Israel and Hamas to release a civilian Israeli hostage.

Over the weekend, Israel had prevented Palestinians from crossing the Netzarim Corridor – a strip of land it has occupied that cuts the territory in two – as agreed under this month’s ceasefire deal, accusing Hamas of failing to uphold the agreement by not including Arbel Yehoud, an Israeli civilian, in Saturday’s hostage release.

Hamas said that blocking returns to the north also amounted to a truce violation, adding it had provided “all the necessary guarantees” for Yehoud’s release.

Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee said Palestinian residents would be allowed to return on foot starting at 7am and by car at 9am.

The news was greeted with joy by the thousands of displaced Palestinians living in inadequate shelters and tent encampments. “No sleep, I have everything packed and ready to go with the first light of day,” said Ghada, a mother of five.

“At least we are going back home, now I can say war is over and I hope it will stay calm,” she told Reuters via a chat app.

In other developments:

Israeli forces opened fire on people trying to return to their homes, killing at least 22 people, including a Lebanese soldier and six women, and injuring 124 amid a dispute with Lebanon over a ceasefire agreement. Israel said it would not allow civilians to return to southern Lebanon, and accused the Lebanese army of violating key commitments under the ceasefire deal. Videos showed tense face-offs between Israeli soldiers and tanks and Lebanese crowds waving banners and chanting slogans.
The White House said late on Sunday that Israel and Lebanon had agreed to extend the deadline for Israeli troops to depart southern Lebanon until 18 February. Israeli prime minister Netanyahu said on Friday that the Lebanese state had not yet “fully enforced” a deal to secure the south, meant to ensure that Hezbollah withdrew beyond the Litani River.
Donald Trump’s proposal that large numbers of Palestinians should leave Gaza to “just clean out” the whole strip has been rejected by US allies in the region and attacked as dangerous, illegal and unworkable by lawyers and activists. Jordan’s foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, told reporters that the country’s stance against any displacement of Palestinians from Gaza remained “firm and unwavering”.
Egypt’s foreign ministry said it categorically rejected any displacement of Palestinians from their land, be it “short term or long term”.
“To ‘clean’ Gaza immediately after the war would in fact be a continuation of the war, through the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people,” said Hassan Jabareen, the director of Palestinian rights group Adalah. Omer Shatz, a lecturer in international law at Sciences Po Paris and international criminal court (ICC) counsel, said Trump’s comments were a “call for ethnic cleansing” that echoed calls from extremist Israeli politicians and public figures dating to the start of the war.

Palestinians wait at near the Netzarim Corridor on Salah al-Din Road. Israel had prevented them from returning to their homes in the north over the weekend, in violation of the ceasefire deal. Photograph: APAImages/REX/Shutterstock

The US president had said Palestinians could move to countries including Jordan, which already hosts more than 2.7 million Palestinian refugees, and Egypt. “I’d rather get involved with some of the Arab nations and build housing at a different location where they can maybe live in peace for a change,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One. “You’re talking about probably a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing and say: ‘You know, it’s over.’”