About 400,000 Palestinians have returned to the northern areas of the Gaza Strip over the past few days, according to a report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
“More than 375,000 people have moved from south to north since the coastal road and Salah-ed-Din road were reopened on January 27,” the office noted.
Palestinians returned to the northern part of the enclave after the Israeli authorities received confirmation on Monday that Israeli citizen Arbel Yehud, whom the Palestinian movement Hamas was supposed to release along with a second group of captives on January 25 as part of a deal, is alive. It is expected that she will return home on January 30, along with servicewoman Agam Berger and “another individual,” whose name has not yet been disclosed.
On January 15, the Prime Minister of Qatar announced that, thanks to mediation efforts by his country, Egypt, and the United States, Israel and Hamas had reached an agreement for the release of hostages and the establishment of a ceasefire in the region. During the first phase, which will last 42 days, Hamas will release 33 hostages in exchange for Palestinians held in Israeli jails. On January 25, four female hostages who were serving mandatory military service in the Israeli army were released from Gaza and returned home. In turn, Israel freed 200 Palestinians: 114 went to the West Bank, 16 returned to Gaza, and the remaining 70 were deported to Egypt, where they were met by representatives of Hamas leadership.
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Photo: Eiso Vaandrager/Creative Commons 2.0
Based on materials from TASS