Israeli forces have begun pulling back from a key corridor through Gaza as part of its ceasefire deal with Hamas.
As part of the deal, Israel agreed to withdraw its military from the four-mile-long Netzarim corridor, which separates northern Gaza from the south.
When the ceasefire began last month Israel began allowing Palestinians to cross the corridor and return to their homes, many of which are little more than rubble after 15 months of war.
Hamas has celebrated the withdrawal as a victory and said the Hamas-run police force had deployed to the area to supervise the flow of Palestinians passing through.
Little progress has emerged in negotiating the second phase of the deal, which is supposed to see all Israeli hostages released in return for a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
However, Israel has said it will not agree to a complete withdrawal until Hamas’s military and political capabilities are eliminated – while Hamas has countered that it will not hand over the final hostages until Israel removes all its troops from Gaza.
During the first 42-day phase of the deal, which began on 19 January, Hamas has been gradually releasing 33 Israeli hostages captured during its rampage into Israel on 7 October 2023 in exchange for the return of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
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The issue has been further complicated in recent weeks by Donald Trump’s proposal to relocate Palestinians so the US can take over Gaza.
The US president said his country would then develop the land and turn it into the “Riviera of the Middle East,” while the enclave’s population of two million are resettled in nearby countries such as Egypt and Jordan.
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Israel welcomed the idea, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying a Palestinian state should be created in Saudi Arabia because “they have a lot of land over there”.
But the Arab world has rejected Mr Trump’s idea, with Saudi Arabia saying Mr Netanyau’s remarks “aim to divert attention from the successive crimes committed by the Israeli occupation against our Palestinian brothers in Gaza, including the ethnic cleansing they are being subjected to”.
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Israel’s war with Hamas, which has left much of Gaza devastated, was sparked when Hamas crossed into Israel on 7 October 2023, killing around 1,200 Israelis and taking around 250 hostages.
The war has killed more than 47,000 people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.
