Gazans unable to return home set for long wait to cross Israeli barrier

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

Palestinian police prevented hundreds of displaced people from reaching the junction, where several Israeli tanks and armoured vehicles were still blocking the road.

Many had hoped to return home after a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war took effect last week, but found themselves stopped in their tracks.

Rafiqa Subh, a resident of the northern city of Beit Lahia, has dismantled the tent she and her family sheltered in after being displaced, planning to return to the north after more than 15 months of war.

"We want to go back, even though our houses are destroyed. We miss our homes so much", she told AFP in Nuseirat, the closest town to the Netzarim Corridor from the south.

Subh said she would wait to be allowed back into the north "even if we have to sleep by the checkpoint".

Israel said on Saturday it would block the return to northern Gaza until militants release hostage Arbel Yehud, seized during the October 7, 2023 attack that sparked the war.

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

"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.

UNCERTAINTY

Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said: "Hamas did not comply with the agreement on its obligation to return civilian females first."

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

In a separate statement posted on X, the military's Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee said Gazans were not allowed to approach the Netzarim Corridor, through which they have to pass to reach their homes in the north, "until it is announced open".

"These instructions will remain in effect" until further notice and until "Hamas fulfils its commitments", Adraee said.

Hamas has repeatedly claimed that as part of the ceasefire agreement, Israeli forces were to withdraw from Netzarim on Saturday, during the second hostage-prisoner swap, and allow displaced Gazans from to return to the north.

Among those trying to return Saturday was Samia Helles, a 26-year-old from Gaza City.

She told AFP that she had travelled with her three children to be among the first back.

"So far, I don't know whether my house is still standing or destroyed. I don't know if my mother is alive or dead. I haven't been able to contact her for a month," she said.

Jibril al-Jumla, 39, said he has been "here with my wife, three daughters and four sons" since Friday, waiting to cross to the north.

"We were displaced in October 2023 to Khan Yunis and moved several times from there. We lived a life of humiliation, hunger, fear and terror."