IDF Withdraws from Gaza's Netzarim Corridor as Part of Ceasefire Agreement

The Israeli withdrawal is in line with the Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement of 19 January under which 16 Israeli hostages and 566 Palestinian prisoners have so far been freed. By the end of the first stage of the ceasefire in three weeks' time, 33 hostages and 1,900 prisoners are expected to have been freed. Israel says eight of the 33 are dead. Hamas seized 251 hostages and killed about 1,200 people when it attacked Israel on 7 October 2023, triggering the Gaza war. At least 48,189 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's offensive, according to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry. About two-thirds of Gaza's buildings have been damaged or destroyed by Israel's attacks, the UN says.

Israeli forces withdrew from a key Gaza corridor on Sunday, Israeli officials and Hamas said, part of Israel’s commitments under a tenuous ceasefire deal with Hamas that is moving ahead but faces a major test over whether the sides can negotiate its planned extension. Israel agreed as part of the truce to remove its forces from the 4-mile (6-kilometer) Netzarim corridor, a strip of land that bisects northern Gaza from the south that Israel used as a military zone during the war. At the start of the ceasefire last month, Israel began allowing Palestinians to cross Netzarim to head to their homes in the war-battered north, sending hundreds of thousands streaming across Gaza on foot and by car. The withdrawal of forces from the area fulfills another commitment to the deal, which paused the 15-month war.

The Israeli army withdrew its last forces from a corridor separating north and south Gaza, causing Hamas to mock Benjamin Netanyahu for failing to achieve “total victory”. The withdrawal from the eastern part of the Netzarim corridor, in line with the ceasefire agreement, saw Palestinians returning to the area on Sunday morning. “Israeli forces have dismantled their positions and military posts and completely withdrawn their tanks from the Netzarim corridor, on Salah-a-din Road, allowing vehicles to pass freely in both directions,” a Hamas official said. Hamas hailed the withdrawal, saying it “completes the failure of the war of extermination against our people” and that it “debunks Netanyahu’s lie about achieving a total victory.”