Israel said it would stop blocking Palestinians from travelling north after agreement reached with Hamas on release of Israeli civilian Arbel Yehoud
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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.
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.’”