Middle East live: Palestinians start to return to homes in north Gaza after Israeli hostage deal reached | Israel-Gaza war

Displaced Palestinians have started returning to north Gaza, the territory’s interior ministry has confirmed as images posted on social media showed thousands of people streaming along sandy roadways fringed by the devastation of more than a year of Israeli airstrikes.

“The passage of displaced Palestinians has begun along the Al-Rashid Road via the western part of the Netzarim checkpoint towards Gaza City and the northern part” of the Gaza Strip, an official told the news agency AFP.

Thousands of Palestinians had headed to the Netzarim Corridor – a strip of land Israel has occupied that cuts the territory in two – on Saturday in anticipation of being allowed to cross back to their homes in the north as agreed under this month’s ceasefire deal.

But Israeli troops set up roadblocks and fired on some people trying to return, killing at least one person. It accused Hamas of failing to uphold the agreement by not including Arbel Yehoud, an Israeli civilian, in Saturday’s hostage release.

Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that several people were critically injured in the Israeli attack on the crowd of civilians waiting to cross the corridor near Nuseirat refugee camp.

Hamas said that blocking returns to the north also amounted to a truce violation, adding it had provided “all the necessary guarantees” for Yehoud’s release.

In the early hours of Monday, mediator Qatar said a deal had been reached that would see Yehoud released before Friday along with two other hostages and that Palestinians would be allowed to cross the corridor from early on Monday.

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the Middle East.

Displaced Palestinians are expected to begin returning to their homes in northern Gaza on Monday, two days later than scheduled, after an agreement was reached between Israel and Hamas to release a civilian Israeli hostage.

Over the weekend, Israel had prevented Palestinians from crossing the Netzarim Corridor – a strip of land it has occupied that cuts the territory in two – as agreed under this month’s ceasefire deal, accusing Hamas of failing to uphold the agreement by not including Arbel Yehoud, an Israeli civilian, in Saturday’s hostage release.

Hamas said that blocking returns to the north also amounted to a truce violation, adding it had provided “all the necessary guarantees” for Yehoud’s release.

In the early hours of Monday, mediator Qatar said a deal had been reached that would see Yehoud released before Friday along with two other hostages and that Palestinians would be allowed to cross the corridor from early on Monday. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu later confirmed the news in a statement.

Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee said Palestinian residents would be allowed to return on foot starting at 7am and by car at 9am.

The news was greeted with joy by the thousands of displaced Palestinians living in inadequate shelters and tent encampments. “No sleep, I have everything packed and ready to go with the first light of day,” said Ghada, a mother of five.

“At least we are going back home, now I can say war is over and I hope it will stay calm,” she told Reuters via a chat app.

In other developments:

• Israeli forces opened fire on people trying to return to their homes, killing at least 22 people, including a Lebanese soldier and six women, and injuring 124 amid a dispute with Lebanon over a ceasefire agreement. Israel said it would not allow civilians to return to southern Lebanon, and accused the Lebanese army of violating key commitments under the ceasefire deal. Videos showed tense face-offs between Israeli soldiers and tanks and Lebanese crowds waving banners and chanting slogans.

• The White House said late on Sunday that Israel and Lebanon had agreed to extend the deadline for Israeli troops to depart southern Lebanon until 18 February. Israeli prime minister Netanyahu said on Friday that the Lebanese state had not yet “fully enforced” a deal to secure the south, meant to ensure that Hezbollah withdrew beyond the Litani River.

• Donald Trump’s proposal that large numbers of Palestinians should leave Gaza to “just clean out” the whole strip has been rejected by US allies in the region and attacked as dangerous, illegal and unworkable by lawyers and activists. Jordan’s foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, told reporters that the country’s stance against any displacement of Palestinians from Gaza remained “firm and unwavering”.
  Egypt’s foreign ministry said it categorically rejected any displacement of Palestinians from their land, be it “short term or long term”.

• “To ‘clean’ Gaza immediately after the war would in fact be a continuation of the war, through the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people,” said Hassan Jabareen, the director of Palestinian rights group Adalah. Omer Shatz, a lecturer in international law at Sciences Po Paris and international criminal court (ICC) counsel, said Trump’s comments were a “call for ethnic cleansing” that echoed calls from extremist Israeli politicians and public figures dating to the start of the war.

• The US president had said Palestinians could move to countries including Jordan, which already hosts more than 2.7 million Palestinian refugees, and Egypt. “I’d rather get involved with some of the Arab nations and build housing at a different location where they can maybe live in peace for a change,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One. “You’re talking about probably a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing and say: ‘You know, it’s over.’”