Palestinians began returning to the north of the war-battered Gaza Strip on Monday after Israel and Hamas said they had reached a deal for the release of another six hostages. The breakthrough preserves a fragile ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, which has devastated the Gaza Strip and displaced nearly all its residents, paving the way for more hostage-prisoner swaps under an agreement aimed at ending the more than 15-month conflict. Israel had been preventing vast crowds of Palestinians from returning to their homes in northern Gaza, accusing Hamas of violating the truce by failing to release civilian women hostages.
Throngs of Palestinians began making their way north on Monday morning, an official at the Hamas-run Interior Ministry told AFP. "The passage of displaced Palestinians has begun", the official said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said earlier that a deal had been reached for the release of three hostages on Thursday and another three on Saturday.
Hamas confirmed the agreement in its own statement Monday. Palestinian leaders meanwhile slammed a plan floated by US President Donald Trump to "clean out" Gaza, vowing to resist any effort to forcibly displace residents of the war-battered territory. Trump said Gaza had become a "demolition site", adding he had spoken to Jordan's King Abdullah II about moving Palestinians out.
"I'd like Egypt to take people. And I'd like Jordan to take people," Trump told reporters. Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas,.
