DEIR AL-BALAH: Tens of thousands of Palestinians returned to the most heavily destroyed part of the Gaza Strip on Monday as Israel lifted its closure of the north for the first time since the early weeks of the 15-month war with Hamas in accordance with a fragile ceasefire.
Massive crowds of people carrying their belongings on foot stretched along a main highway running next to the coast in a stunning reversal of the mass exodus from the north at the start of the war, which many Palestinians had feared Israel would make permanent.
Palestinians who have been sheltering in squalid tent camps and schools-turned-shelters for over a year are eager to return to their homes -- even knowing that they have likely been damaged or destroyed.
Many saw their return as an act of steadfastness after Israel's military campaign, which was launched in response to Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack, and as a repudiation of U.S. President Donald Trump's suggestion that large numbers of Palestinians be resettled in Egypt and Jordan.
'The joy of return' Ismail Abu Matter, a father of four who had waited for three days before crossing with his family, described scenes of jubilation on the other side, with people singing, praying and crying as they were reunited with relatives.
"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 over a dispute between Hamas and Israel, which said the militant group had changed the order of the hostages it released in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. Mediators resolved the dispute overnight.
Hamas said the return was "a victory for our people, and a declaration of failure and defeat for the (Israeli) occupation and transfer plans."
The ceasefire is aimed at winding down the deadliest and most destructive war ever fought between Israel and Hamas and securing the release of dozens of hostages captured in the militants' Oct. 7, 2023, attack.
Israel ordered the wholescale evacuation of the north in the opening days of the war and sealed it off shortly after ground troops moved in. Around a million people fled to the south in October 2023, while hundreds of thousands remained in the north, which had some of the heaviest fighting and the worst destruction of the war.
Defense Minister Israel Katz said Israel would continue to enforce the ceasefire, and that anyone violating it or threatening Israeli forces "will bear the full cost."
"We will not allow a return to the reality of Oct. 7," he wrote on the social media platform X.
Hostage dispute rattled week-old ceasefire Israel had delayed the opening of the crossing, which was supposed to happen over the weekend, saying it would not allow Palestinians north until a female civilian hostage, Arbel Yehoud, was released. It also accused Hamas of failing to provide information on whether the remaining hostages set to be freed in the first phase are alive or dead.
Hamas in turn accused Israel of violating the agreement by not opening the crossing.
The Gulf nation of Qatar, a key mediator with Hamas, announced early Monday that an agreement had been reached to release Yehoud along with two other hostages before Friday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement that the hostage release - which will include female soldier Agam Berger - will take place on Thursday. That release will be in addition to the one already set for next Saturday, when three hostages should be released.
Hamas also handed over a list of required information about the hostages to be released in the ceasefire's six-week first phase.
Starting at 7 a.m., Palestinians were allowed to cross on foot without inspection through part of the so-called 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 was to open later with an inspection mechanism, the details of which were not immediately known.
A second and more difficult phase awaits Under the first phase of the ceasefire, which runs until early March, Hamas is to free a total of 33 hostages in exchange for the release of nearly 2,000 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. The militants have released seven hostages, including four female soldiers, in the current ceasefire, in exchange for more than 300 prisoners, including many serving life sentences for deadly attacks on Israelis.
The second - and far more difficult - phase of the agreement has not yet been negotiated. Hamas says it will not release the remaining 60 or so hostages unless Israel ends the war, while Netanyahu says he is still committed to destroying the militant group and ending its nearly 18-year rule over Gaza.
Hamas started the war when thousands of its fighters stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250. Around 90 hostages are still inside Gaza, and Israel believes around a third of them are dead.
Israel's air and ground war has killed over 47,000 Palestinians, more than 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 militants, without providing evidence.
Israeli bombardment and ground operations have displaced around 90% of Gaza's 2.3 million people, often multiple times, and flattened entire neighborhoods.