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International mediators resolved disagreements over fragile ceasefires in Gaza and Lebanon late on Sunday, after clashes involving the Israeli military and civilians threatened to undermine both accords.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced Hamas would be releasing three hostages in Gaza on Thursday, including Arbel Yehud, resolving the first major crisis of the Gaza ceasefire agreement, which took effect one week ago.
In return, Israel will allow displaced Palestinians in Gaza to return to their homes in the north of the shattered territory starting on Monday.
The issue of Yehud’s release had strained the US-brokered truce between Israel and Hamas despite the release on Saturday of four female Israeli soldiers from Gaza, and 200 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails.
Israeli officials claimed Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that controls Gaza, had violated the agreement when it released the soldiers before Yehud, who is the last civilian female hostage still believed to be alive in Gaza.
Israel retaliated by delaying its withdrawal from the strategic Netzarim corridor, which bisects north and south Gaza, blocking hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from crossing back into the northern part of the territory, as stipulated in the accord.
Over the weekend masses of Palestinians congregated near the corridor, with some families sleeping outside in the winter cold.
The Israeli military said it had fired “warning shots at several gatherings of dozens of suspects who were advancing toward the troops and posed a threat to them”.
Health authorities in Gaza said two people were killed and nine others injured in the clashes on Sunday.
US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators were able to resolve the crisis by effectively securing an additional hostage release this Thursday, including Yehud.
The weekly hostage release that is set to take place next Saturday will move ahead as planned, with three more Israelis expected to be freed, according to Israeli officials.
In return, several hundred Palestinian prisoners will also be released from Israeli jails.
Hamas on Sunday provided Israel with a list of the remaining hostages in captivity and set to be released as part of the initial six week ceasefire, detailing whether they were alive or dead.
The war in Gaza was triggered by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, during which fighters from the group killed 1,200 people and took 250 hostages.
Israel responded with an offensive in Gaza that has killed more than 47,000 people and fuelled a humanitarian catastrophe in the territory.
US President Donald Trump has urged Egypt and Jordan to take in most of the population of Gaza, saying it was time to “clean out” the territory, but his proposal was rejected by the two Arab countries.
Meanwhile Trump’s administration announced that the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Lebanon, reached last November through American mediation, would be extended until February 18.
The accord halted more than a year of fighting between Israel and Hizbollah, the Lebanese militant group that was attacking the Jewish state in solidarity with Hamas.
Israel made clear last week it would not meet the two-month deadline of Sunday for the withdrawal of its military from southern Lebanon.
Israel has claimed the Lebanese army’s deployments in areas vacated by both its troops and Hizbollah fighters had been too slow to meet the deadline.
With Israeli forces still holding territory inside Lebanon, hundreds of residents came under Israeli fire as they attempted to return on foot to their villages.
According to Lebanon’s health ministry, 22 people were killed and 124 injured on Sunday.
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