Thousands of Palestinians return to destroyed homes in north Gaza

Tens of thousands of Palestinians are travelling back to the devastated neighborhoods of northern Gaza after being displaced during the Israel-Hamas war, as a fragile 42-day ceasefire moves into a second week.

Israeli troops stepped away from large parts of the Netzarim Corridor that divides the north of the territory from the south to enable them to pass on Monday, at first on foot and later by car. They are leaving behind temporary camps lacking adequate sanitation and food and water supplies, but will arrive at their former homes in an area largely reduced to wreckage.

“It’s like a river of returnees,” said Ashraf Ghaben, a Gazan journeying by foot with his wife, sister and seven children. He knows his house in Beit Lahia, in the far north, is badly damaged beyond repair, but is making the trip regardless.

The mass migration began after the second round of hostage-for-prisoner exchanges took place over the weekend, with a dispute over the freeing of the last abducted female civilian, Arbel Yehud, briefly delaying proceedings. She will now be released by Hamas on Thursday, along with the remaining woman soldier and one unnamed other.

They’re among 33 hostages to be returned to Israel in exchange for scores of Palestinian prisoners during the six-week truce agreed to earlier this month, with the influx of humanitarian aid into Gaza increasing to 600 trucks a day.

Hamas provided a list showing that, of the hostages agreed to be freed in the first part of the ceasefire, eight are dead, according to an Israeli official familiar with the situation.

Access to northern Gaza was banned shortly after the start of the war in October 2023, when Israel told civilians to make way for the bombardment of Gaza City, once the territory’s largest urban center, with an air and ground campaign that destroyed much of the area.

The war started after thousands of Hamas operatives raided Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and abducting 250. In the ensuing conflict, more than 47,000 Gazans have been killed to date, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between combatants and civilians.

Hamas spokesman Abdul Latif al-Qanou said the scenes of thousands of Palestinians returning to the north of Gaza showed the failure of Israel to achieve its goals. The migration is “a message of defiance to any new attempt to displace them,” he said.

Hamas is considered a terrorist organization by the U.S. and many other governments. Israel has vowed to make it impossible for the Iran-backed group to rule again in Gaza but the scenes of its militants returning rapidly to the streets have raised doubts about the feasibility of that aim.

Uncertainty over the future of Gaza increased over the weekend when U.S. President Donald Trump suggested the territory’s residents should be absorbed by Egypt and Jordan, an idea rejected by both. Who runs the territory and who will oversee reconstruction are among a number of key questions that remain unanswered.

As Israelis watched displaced Palestinians leave their squalid housing in the south, some expressed concern that armed Hamas militants would be able to join them on the journey north unchecked. Israel said this would be considered a breach of the truce agreement.

“The entry of tens of thousands of Gazans into the northern Gaza Strip are images of Hamas’ victory and another humiliating part of the reckless deal,” said Itamar Ben Gvir, head of Israel’s far-right Jewish Power party who quit Netanyahu’s government in protest against the ceasefire. “This is not what ‘total victory’ looks like - this is what total surrender looks like.”

Others feared the return of civilians north would make it challenging to resume the war after the initial six-week pause.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich stopped short of following Ben Gvir in removing his party from the ruling coalition, allowing Netanyahu to retain a thin majority in parliament. But he threatened to do so if the war isn’t resumed after the temporary pause. If that happened, Netanyahu would be left with a minority government.