Gaza officials say tens of thousands blocked from reaching north at Israeli barrier

NUSEIRAT: Gaza’s civil defence agency said tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians were blocked from returning to the north of the territory on Sunday at an Israeli military barrier.

“Tens of thousands of displaced people are waiting near the Netzarim Corridor to return to the northern Gaza Strip,” agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP, with Israel refusing to allow them through in a dispute over a hostage release.

AFP journalists in the area saw huge crowds of Gazans gathered on a coastal road near the barrier waiting to get through, with aerial footage showing the crowd stretching hundreds of metres in three directions.

Ismail al-Thawabtah, director general of the government media office in Hamas-run Gaza, also said there were tens of thousands waiting at the junction.

He put the total number of Gazans wanting to return to the north at “between 615,000 and 650,000”.

Hamas frees four Israeli hostages to Red Cross in Gaza

The Netzarim Corridor is a seven-kilometre (4.3-mile) strip of land militarised by Israel that bisects Gaza from the Israeli border to the Mediterranean Sea. The corridor cuts off the north from the rest of the territory.

As part of the ceasefire deal that began a week ago, Israel was due to let displaced Gazans cross the corridor and return to their homes, with Hamas officials saying it would happen on Saturday.

Being a civilian woman, Yehud “was supposed to be released today”, as part of the second hostage-prisoner swap under the truce deal, a statement from the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday.

“Israel will not allow the passage of Gazans to the northern part of the Gaza Strip until the release of civilian Arbel Yehud… is arranged,” it said.

Two Hamas sources told AFP on Saturday that Yehud was “alive and in good health”, with one source saying she would be “released as part of the third swap set for next Saturday”, February 1.

Hamas on Sunday said Israel’s blocking returns to the north amounts to a truce violation and said it has provided “all the necessary guarantees” for Yehud’s release.