By OSAMA SALEH, WAFAA SHURAFA and SAMY MAGDY
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians streamed into Gaza’s most heavily destroyed area on Monday after Israel opened the north for the first time since the early weeks of the war with Hamas, a dramatic reversal of their exodus 15 months ago.
As the fragile ceasefire held into a second week, Israel was informed by Hamas that eight of the hostages to be freed during the deal’s first phase are dead.
Joyous crowds of Palestinians, some holding babies or pushing wheelchairs, walked along a seaside road all day and into the night, carrying bedrolls, bottles of water and other belongings. A few armed, masked Hamas fighters flashed a victory sign. The crowd was watched over by Israeli tanks on a nearby hill.
Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.
The United Nations said over 200,000 people were observed moving north in Gaza on Monday morning alone.
Palestinians who have been sheltering in squalid tent camps and former schools are eager to return to their homes — even though they are likely damaged or destroyed. Many had feared that Israel would make their displacement permanent.
Yasmin Abu Amshah, a mother of three, said she walked 6 kilometers (nearly 4 miles) to reach her damaged but habitable Gaza City home. She saw her younger sister for the first time in over a year.
“It was a long trip, but a happy one,” she said.
Many saw their return as an act of steadfastness after Israel’s military campaign, launched in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel. The return was also seen as a repudiation of U.S. President Donald Trump’s suggestion that many Palestinians be resettled in Egypt and Jordan, which those countries have rejected.
Families of dead hostages are informed
Whether hostages are still alive inside Gaza has been a heartbreaking question for waiting families who have pushed Israel’s government to reach a deal to free them, fearing that time was running out.
Before Monday’s announcement, Israel believed that at least 35 of the about 90 hostages taken in the Oct. 7 attack and still in Gaza were dead.
Government spokesman David Mencer told journalists that a list received overnight from Hamas on the status of the 33 hostages being freed under the ceasefire’s first phase showed eight were dead.
The families have been informed, he said, adding that the information matched what Israeli intelligence had believed.
The ceasefire is aimed at winding down the deadliest and most destructive war ever fought between Israel and Hamas. Terrorists killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the Oct. 7 assault and abducted another 250.
Israel responded with an air and ground war that has killed over 47,000 Palestinians, over half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. It does not say how many of the dead were combatants. Israel says it has killed over 17,000 fighters, without providing evidence.
In all, around 90% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been displaced.
‘The joy of return’
Ismail Abu Matter, a father of four who waited for days near the crossing point for northern Gaza, described scenes of jubilation, with people singing, praying and crying.
“It’s the joy of return,” said Abu Matter, whose relatives were among the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled or were driven out of what is now Israel during the 1948 war surrounding its creation. “We had thought we wouldn’t return, like our ancestors.”
The opening was delayed for two days as Israel said Hamas had changed the order of the hostages it released in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. Local medical officials said Israeli forces opened fire at the waiting crowd and killed several Palestinians over the weekend. Israel’s military said it fired warning shots at approaching groups it deemed a threat.
Mediators resolved the dispute overnight.
Hamas called the return “a victory for our people, and a declaration of failure and defeat for the (Israeli) occupation and transfer plans.”
In the war’s opening days, Israel ordered the evacuation of the north and sealed it off after ground troops moved in. Around a million people fled south while hundreds of thousands remained in the north, which had some of the heaviest fighting and the worst destruction.
“This is our house, four stories. You can’t see them,” one returning man, gesturing to a pile of rubble, said in an AP video.
Hostage dispute rattled week-old ceasefire
Palestinians were crossing on foot without inspection through part of the Netzarim corridor, a military zone bisecting the territory just south of Gaza City that Israel carved out early in the war. A checkpoint for vehicles opened later on Gaza’s main north-south highway, where traffic was backed up for around 3 kilometers (2 miles).
Under the ceasefire agreement, vehicles are to be inspected for weapons before entering the north.
An Egyptian official said Egyptian contractors, along with a U.S. firm, run checkpoints that inspect vehicles heading via Salahuddin road. The contractors are part of an Egyptian-Qatari committee implementing the ceasefire, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Israel had delayed the crossing’s opening, which was supposed to happen over the weekend, saying it would not allow Palestinians north until a civilian hostage, Arbel Yehoud, was released. Israel said she should have been released before four female soldiers who were freed on Saturday.
Israel also accused Hamas of failing to provide information on the hostages to be freed. Hamas in turn accused Israel of violating the agreement by not opening the crossing.
Qatar, a key mediator with Hamas, announced early Monday that an agreement had been reached to release Yehoud along with two other hostages by Friday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the release — which will include female soldier Agam Berger — will take place on Thursday. Another three hostages should be released on Saturday as previously planned.
Defense Minister Israel Katz said anyone violating the ceasefire or threatening Israeli forces “will bear the full cost.” Israel’s military has warned Palestinians not to approach its forces, which have withdrawn to buffer zones inside Gaza.
There were mixed emotions among Israelis watching the scene in Gaza from the nearby city of Sderot. Some expressed only mistrust toward the Palestinians. But others were empathetic. “Let them come back home safely and conduct a normal life,” said one woman, Rachel Osher. “We also want it. We want the same on both sides of the border.”
Shurafa reported from Wadi Gaza, Gaza Strip, and Magdy from Cairo. Associated Press reporters Joe Krauss in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Mohammad Jahjouh and Abdel Kareem Hana in Wadi Gaza, Gaza Strip, contributed.
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