A PALESTINIAN man was killed and seven people were wounded by Israeli fire overnight as crowds gathered in the hope of returning to the northern Gaza Strip.
Under the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal, Israel on Saturday was to begin allowing Palestinians to return to their homes in northern Gaza on foot through the so-called Netzarim corridor bisecting the territory.
Israel put the move on hold until Hamas freed a hostage who Israel said was supposed to have been released that day.
A man was shot and two others were wounded late on Saturday, according to the Awda Hospital, which received the casualties.
Another five Palestinians, including a child, were wounded early on Sunday in a separate shooting, the hospital said.
Israel has pulled back from several areas of Gaza as part of the ceasefire, which came into force last Sunday, but the military has warned people to stay away from its forces, which are still operating in a buffer zone inside Gaza along the border and in the Netzarim corridor.
Hamas freed four young female Israeli soldiers on Saturday, and Israel released about 200 Palestinians, most of whom were serving life sentences after being convicted of deadly attacks.
But Israel said another hostage, the female civilian Arbel Yehoud, was supposed to have been released as well, and that it would not open the Netzarim corridor until she was freed.
It also accused Hamas of failing to provide details on the conditions of the hostages set to be freed in the coming weeks.
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 swathes of Gaza and displaced around 90% of its population of 2.3 million people. Many who have returned to their homes since the ceasefire began have found only mounds of rubble where their neighbourhoods once stood.
Israel says around 90 hostages of the 250 captured in the October 7, 2023 attack are still being held in Gaza, with around 33 set to be released during the first phase of the ceasefire.
Nearly 2000 Palestinians are also set to be freed in the first phase, which runs until early March.
Elsewhere in the Middle East, at least three people were killed and more than 40 others injured in southern Lebanon when Israeli forces opened fire on protesters who breached road blocks the Israeli army set up a day before.
Demonstrators, some of them carrying Hezbollah flags, attempted to enter several villages in the border area to protest against Israel’s failure to withdraw its troops by the 60-day deadline stipulated in a ceasefire agreement that halted the Israel-Hezbollah war in late November.
Israel has said that it needs to stay longer because the Lebanese army has not deployed to all areas of southern Lebanon to ensure that Hezbollah does not reestablish a military presence in the area. The Lebanese army has said it cannot deploy until Israeli forces withdraw.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry said in a statement that one protester was killed and 10 others injured in the border village of Houla.
Another protester was killed in the village of Aitaroun and nine injured. A third protester was killed in the village of Blida. The health ministry also reported injuries in the areas of Odaisseh, Rab Thalatin and Kfar Kila.
