Israeli soldiers open fire on Palestinians as they gather to return to their war-torn home, resulting in one death and seven injuries

A man from Palestine died, and seven others got injured due to Israeli gunfire while a group gathered, hoping to go back to their destroyed home during a tentative ceasefire agreement that’s been in place for a week.

As per the truce between Israel and Hamas, Israel was set to permit Palestinians to return to their residences in the northern Gaza Strip by walking through the Netzarim corridor that splits the region starting from Saturday.

Israel put the move on hold until Hamas freed a hostage who Israel said was supposed to have been released that day.

The 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 retreated from various parts of Gaza as a component of the ceasefire that commenced last Sunday. However, the military has cautioned people to avoid their troops still stationed in a protected zone inside Gaza along the border and within the Netzarim corridor.

Hamas freed four young female Israeli soldiers on Saturday, and Israel released about 200 Palestinian prisoners, most of whom were serving life sentences after being convicted of deadly attacks.

Daniella Gilboa, Naama Levy, Karina Ariev, who are all 20, and Liri Albag, 19, were handed over to a team from the International Committee of the Red Cross after Israel and Palestinian militants carried out a second hostage prisoner swap.

The four women were then transported to the border of Gaza, where a helicopter waited for them, and were then taken to Re’im, in Israel, before being transported to hospital to receive medical checks. 

Around an hour after being handed over to the Red Cross, the Israeli Defence Force confirmed that the four hostages had arrived back in Israel.

‘The four returning soldiers, Daniela Gilboa, Liri Elbag, Naama Levy and Karina Ariev, have now crossed the border into Israeli territory with IDF and Shin Bet forces,’ the IDF wrote on X.

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.

The United States, Egypt and Qatar, which mediated the ceasefire, were working to address the dispute. 

In a separate development, President Donald Trump suggested Saturday that most of Gaza’s population should be at least temporarily resettled elsewhere, including in Egypt and Jordan, in order to ‘just clean out’ the war-ravaged enclave.

‘You’re talking about a million and half people, and we just clean out that whole thing,’ he told DailyMail.com aboard the presidential jet Air Force One on Saturday. 

Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinians themselves have previously rejected such a scenario.

Trump said he asked Jordan’s King Abdullah during a phone call Saturday to take in more Palestinian refugees from a region mired in war.

‘You know over the centuries it’s had many, many conflicts. And I don’t know, something has to happen,’ he said in answer to DailyMail.com’s questions during a 20-minute question and answer session on the presidential jet with his traveling press pool.

‘It’s literally a demolition site, almost everything is demolished and people are dying there so 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.’

He said he will make the same request to Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi when they talk on Sunday.

The ceasefire reached earlier this month after more than a year of negotiations is aimed at ending the 15-month war triggered by Hamas’s October 7 2023, attack and freeing scores of hostages still held in Gaza in return for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.

Around 90 hostages are still being held in Gaza, and Israeli authorities believe at least a third, and up to half of them, were killed in the initial attack or died in captivity.

The first phase of the ceasefire runs until early March and includes the release of a total of 33 hostages and nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.

The second – and far more difficult – phase has yet to be negotiated. 

Hamas has said it will not release the remaining hostages without an end to the war while Israel has threatened to resume its offensive until Hamas is destroyed.

Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people in the October 7 attack, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250 people.

More than 100 were freed during a week-long ceasefire in November 2023. 

Israeli forces have rescued eight living hostages and recovered the remains of dozens more, at least three of whom were mistakenly killed by Israeli forces. 

Seven have been freed since the latest ceasefire began.

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 per cent of its population of 2.3million people. 

Many who have returned to their homes since the ceasefire began have found only mounds of rubble where their neighbourhoods once stood.