Qatar says deal is in place to release Israeli hostage and allow Palestinians into northern Gaza
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Qatar announced early Monday that an agreement has been reached to release an Israeli civilian hostage and allow Palestinians to return to northern Gaza, easing the first major crisis of the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
The statement from Qatar, a mediator in ceasefire talks, said Hamas will hand over the civilian hostage, Arbel Yehoud, along with two other hostages before Friday. On Monday, Israeli authorities will allow Palestinians to return to northern Gaza.
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a statement said the hostage release — which will include soldier Agam Berger — will take place Thursday, and it confirmed that Palestinians can move north on Monday. Israel's military said people can start crossing on foot at 7 a.m.
Under the ceasefire deal, Israel on Saturday was to begin allowing Palestinians to return to northern Gaza, but it put that on hold because of Yehoud, who it said should have been released that day. Hamas accused Israel of violating the agreement.
The release of Yehoud and two others is in addition to the one already set for next Saturday, when three hostages should be released.
In addition, Hamas in a statement said the militant group had handed over a list of required information about all hostages to be released in the ceasefire's six-week first phase. The Israeli prime minister's office confirmed it had received it.
Thousands of Palestinians have gathered, waiting to move north through the Netzarim corridor bisecting Gaza. Local health officials on Sunday said Israeli forces fired on the crowd, killing two people and wounding nine.
U.S. President Donald Trump meanwhile suggested that most of Gaza's population be at least temporarily resettled elsewhere, including in Egypt and Jordan, to 'just clean out' the war-ravaged enclave. Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinians rejected that amid fears that Israel might never allow refugees to return.
Senior Hamas official Bassem Naim said Palestinians would never accept such a proposal, 'even if seemingly well-intentioned under the guise of reconstruction.' He said the Palestinians can rebuild Gaza 'even better than before' if Israel lifts its blockade.
Dispute and shootings test fragile ceasefire
Israeli forces fired on the waiting crowds on three occasions overnight and into Sunday, killing two people and wounding nine, including a child, according to Al-Awda Hospital, which received the casualties.
Israel's military in a statement said it fired warning shots at 'several gatherings of dozens of suspects who were advancing toward the troops and posed a threat to them.'
Israel has pulled back from several areas of Gaza under the ceasefire, which came into effect last Sunday. The military has warned people to stay away from its forces, which still operate in a buffer zone inside Gaza along the border and in the Netzarim corridor.
Hamas freed four female Israeli soldiers on Saturday, and Israel released some 200 Palestinian prisoners, most of whom were serving life sentences after being convicted of deadly attacks. But Israel said Yehoud should have been released ahead of the soldiers.
Hamas said it had told mediators — the United States, Egypt and Qatar — that Yehoud was alive and provided guarantees that she would be released.
Frustration grew among the Palestinians waiting to go north as some warmed around bonfires against the winter cold.
'We have been in agony for a year and a half,' said Nadia Qasem.
Fadi al-Sinwar, also displaced from Gaza City, said 'the fate of more than a million people is linked to one person,' referring to Yehoud.
'See how valuable we are? We are worthless,' he said.
Ending the war will be difficult
The ceasefire is aimed at ending the 15-month war triggered by Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack and freeing hostages still held in Gaza in return for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. Around 90 hostages are still in Gaza, and Israeli authorities believe at least a third, and up to half, have died.
Itzik Horn, the father of hostages Iair and Eitan Horn, called any resumption of fighting 'a death sentence for the hostages' and criticized government ministers who want the war to go on.
The ceasefire's first phase runs until early March and includes the release of 33 hostages and nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. The second — and far more difficult — phase, has yet to be negotiated. Hamas has said it will not release the remaining hostages without an end to the war, while Israel has threatened to resume its offensive until Hamas is destroyed.
Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people in the Oct. 7 attack, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250. More than 100 were freed during a weeklong ceasefire in November 2023. Israeli forces have rescued eight living hostages and recovered the remains of dozens more, at least three of them mistakenly killed by Israeli forces. Seven have been freed in the latest ceasefire.
Israel's military campaign 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. The Israeli military says it has killed over 17,000 fighters, without providing evidence.
Israeli bombardment and ground operations have flattened wide swaths of Gaza and displaced around 90% of its population of 2.3 million people. Many who have returned home since the ceasefire began have found only mounds of rubble.
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