Israeli forces withdraw from key Gaza corridor
As part of the deal, Israel agreed to withdraw its military from the
four-mile-long Netzarim corridor, which separates northern Gaza from the south.
News reporter @samuelosborne93 [http://twitter.com/@samuelosborne93]
Sunday 9 February 2025 15:36, UK
Israeli forces have begun pulling back from a key corridor through Gaza as part
of its ceasefire deal with Hamas.
As part of the deal, Israel [https://news.sky.com/topic/israel-5981] agreed to
withdraw its military from the four-mile-long Netzarim corridor, which separates
northern Gaza from the south.
When the ceasefire began last month Israel began allowing Palestinians to cross
the corridor and return to their homes, many of which are little more than
rubble after 15 months of war.
Hamas has celebrated the withdrawal as a victory and said the Hamas-run police
force had deployed to the area to supervise the flow of Palestinians passing
through.
Little progress has emerged in negotiating the second phase of the deal, which
is supposed to see all Israeli hostages released in return for a complete
Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
However, Israel has said it will not agree to a complete withdrawal until
Hamas’s military and political capabilities are eliminated – while Hamas has
countered that it will not hand over the final hostages until Israel removes all
its troops from Gaza.
During the first 42-day phase of the deal, which began on 19 January, Hamas has
been gradually releasing 33 Israeli hostages captured during its rampage into
Israel on 7 October 2023 in exchange for the return of hundreds of Palestinian
prisoners.
Read more:
What you need to know about Trump’s Gaza plan
[https://news.sky.com/story/what-you-need-to-know-about-donald-trumps-gaza-plan-13303403]
The Israel-Hamas war in numbers
[https://news.sky.com/story/the-israel-hamas-war-in-numbers-as-gaza-ceasefire-agreement-is-reached-13289615]
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The issue has been further complicated in recent weeks by Donald Trump’s
[https://news.sky.com/topic/donald-trump-5711] proposal to relocate Palestinians
so the US can take over Gaza
[https://news.sky.com/story/donald-trump-says-gaza-residents-should-be-resettled-or-they-will-end-up-dying-13303161].
The US president said his country would then develop the land and turn it into
the “Riviera of the Middle East,” while the enclave’s population of two million
are resettled in nearby countries such as Egypt and Jordan.
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Israel welcomed the idea, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying a
Palestinian state should be created in Saudi Arabia because “they have a lot of
land over there”.
But the Arab world has rejected Mr Trump’s idea
[https://news.sky.com/story/establishing-palestinian-state-in-saudi-arabia-irresponsible-egypt-says-13305176],
with Saudi Arabia saying Mr Netanyau’s remarks “aim to divert attention from the
successive crimes committed by the Israeli occupation against our Palestinian
brothers in Gaza, including the ethnic cleansing they are being subjected to”.
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Israel’s war with Hamas [https://news.sky.com/topic/israel-hamas-war-10864],
which has left much of Gaza devastated, was sparked when Hamas crossed into
Israel on 7 October 2023, killing around 1,200 Israelis and taking around 250
hostages.
The war has killed more than 47,000 people, according to the Hamas-run health
ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.
