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International mediators resolved disagreements over fragile ceasefires in Gaza and Lebanon on Sunday evening, after clashes involving the Israeli military and civilians threatened to undermine both deals.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced Thursday that Hamas would release three hostages in Gaza, including Arbel Yehud, resolving the first major crisis in the Gaza ceasefire agreement, which took effect a year ago. week.
In exchange, Israel will allow Palestinians displaced from Gaza to return to their homes in the north of the destroyed territory starting Monday.
The issue of Yehud’s release has strained the US-brokered truce between Israel and Hamas, despite Yehud’s release. SATURDAY four female Israeli soldiers from Gaza and 200 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons.
Israeli officials said Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that controls Gaza, violated the agreement by releasing the soldiers before Yehud, who is the last surviving civilian hostage in Gaza.
Israel responded by delaying its withdrawal from the strategic Netzarim corridor, which cuts north and south Gaza, preventing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from returning to the northern part of the territory, as stipulated in the agreement.
Over the weekend, masses of Palestinians gathered near the corridor, with some families sleeping outside in the winter cold.
The Israeli army said it fired “warning shots at several gatherings of dozens of suspects who were advancing toward the troops and posing a threat to them.”
Gaza health authorities said two people were killed and nine others injured in Sunday’s clashes.
American, Qatari and Egyptian mediators managed to resolve the crisis by effectively securing the release of additional hostages on Thursday, including Yehud.
The weekly hostage release scheduled to take place next Saturday will go ahead as planned, and three more Israelis are expected to be freed, according to Israeli officials.
In exchange, several hundred Palestinian prisoners will also be released from Israeli prisons.
On Sunday, Hamas provided Israel with a list of hostages remaining in captivity expected to be released under the initial six-week ceasefire, specifying whether they were alive or dead.
The war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, in which the group’s fighters killed 1,200 people and took 250 hostages.
Israel responded with an offensive in Gaza which killed more than 47,000 people and fueled a humanitarian catastrophe in the territory.
US President Donald Trump urged Egypt and Jordan to take most of Gaza’s population, saying it was time to “clean up” the territory, but his proposal was rejected by both Arab countries.
At the same time, the Trump administration announced that the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Lebanon, concluded last November thanks to American mediation, would be extended until February 18.
The deal ended more than a year of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group that attacked the Jewish state in solidarity with Hamas.
Israel made clear last week that it would not meet Sunday’s two-month deadline for the withdrawal of its army from southern Lebanon.
Israel said Lebanese army deployments to areas liberated by its troops and Hezbollah fighters had been too slow to meet the deadline.
While Israeli forces still held territory inside Lebanon, hundreds of residents came under Israeli fire as they tried to return to their villages on foot.
According to the Lebanese Ministry of Health, 22 people were killed and 124 injured on Sunday.
