“It’s the joy of return,” said Ismail Abu Matter, a father of four. He said people were singing, praying and crying as they reunited with relatives.
The ceasefire is aimed at winding down the deadliest and most destructive war ever fought between Israel and Hamas and securing the release of dozens of hostages captured in the militants' Oct. 7, 2023, attack, which triggered the fighting. Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners are also set to be freed in the exchange.
Israel said Monday that a Hamas list shows eight of the 33 hostages to be released in the ceasefire's first phase are dead. Israel has said the next release of hostages will take place on Thursday, followed by another on Saturday.
Here's the latest:
Turkey says its Syrian rebel allies should join the new national army
ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey has told the Syrian armed groups it supports that they should integrate into the new national army, Turkey’s foreign minister was quoted as saying Monday.
Hakan Fidan said only one legitimate state body should bear arms.
“There are groups close to Turkey with more than 80,000 armed members. We told them without a second thought, to go and join the national army, to be a part of the national army and not to allow any disorder in the country,” Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency quoted Fidan telling Saudi Arabia’s Al-Sharq broadcaster.
The process of forming Syria's new state and military has been bumpy in the nearly two months since the Islamist group Hayyat Tahrir al-Sham established itself as the country's de facto rulers.
Turkey is a key supporter of the so-called Syrian National Army, or SNA, an umbrella group of Syrian forces in the country's north. Turkey has used the SNA as a proxy army to combat U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led groups in Syria.
Fidan also said he hopes armed groups in southern Syria, such as in Suwayda and Daraa, also join Syria’s army.
Hamas officials are in Cairo to discuss the ceasefire
CAIRO — A high-ranking Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo on Monday evening, aiming to discuss the implementation of the ceasefire deal.
The Hamas statement said the delegation includes senior leader Mohammed Darwish and other prominent members of its leadership council and negotiating team.
Hamas said meetings with Egyptian officials will focus on ensuring progress in the ceasefire’s implementation and addressing any challenges in the ongoing exchange of hostages and Palestinian prisoners. The Hamas delegation also will meet with Palestinian prisoners released under the ceasefire’s six-week first phase that began just over a week ago.
Egypt is a key mediator in ceasefire talks and part of the joint committee implementing the deal.
An Egyptian official said Egyptian contractors, along with a U.S. company, run checkpoints in Gaza that inspect vehicles heading north via Salahuddin road. The contractors are part of an Egyptian-Qatari committee implementing the ceasefire, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
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AP writer Samy Magdy contributed to this report.
Egypt's parliament speaker rejects proposals for taking in Palestinians from Gaza
CAIRO — Egypt’s parliament speaker on Monday strongly rejected proposals to move Palestinians out of the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank, saying this could spread conflict to other parts of the Middle East.
The comments by Hanfy el-Gebaly, speaker of the Egyptian House of Representatives, came a day after U.S. President Donald Trump urged Egypt and Jordan to take in Palestinians from war-ravaged Gaza.
El-Gebaly, who didn't address Trump's comments directly, told a parliament session Monday that such proposals "are not only a threat to the Palestinians but also they also represent a severe threat to regional security and stability."
“The Egyptian House of Representatives completely rejects any arrangements or attempts to change the geographical and political reality for the Palestinian cause,” he said.
On Sunday, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry issued a carefully crafted statement rejecting any “temporary or long-term” transfer of Palestinians out of their territories.
The ministry warned that such a move “threatens stability, risks expanding the conflict in the region and undermines prospects of peace and coexistence among its people.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right governing partners have long advocated what they describe as the voluntary emigration of large numbers of Palestinians and the reestablishment of Jewish settlements in Gaza.
Human rights groups have already accused Israel of ethnic cleansing, which United Nations experts have defined as a policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove the civilian population of another group from certain areas "by violent and terror-inspiring means."
On a hill overlooking Gaza, Israelis have mixed emotions about the ceasefire
SDEROT, Israel — There were mixed emotions among Israelis watching the scene in Gaza from the city of Sderot near the border with the territory.
“I am not ready to put my children to sleep near the lion’s cage anymore,” said Hananel Gabay, a guide at a hillside lookout point and a resident of Sderot.
He said the Palestinians in Gaza had made their intentions toward Israel clear, and the country now needs “real security, and to hurt our enemies where it hurts them — to take territory.”
Others disagreed. “Let them come back home safely and conduct a normal life,” one woman watching, Rachel Osher, said of the Palestinians. “We also want it. We want the same on both sides of the border.”
And Avi Shukrun said that above all, the remaining hostages must be brought home.
Israel says Hamas list shows 8 of 33 hostages who were to be freed in first phase of Gaza ceasefire are dead
JERUSALEM — Israel says a Hamas list shows that eight of the 33 hostages to be released in the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire are dead.
Government spokesman David Mencer told journalists Monday that Hamas said the other 25 are alive. Israel overnight said it had received a list of information on the status of the hostages from Hamas.
Israel has said the next release of hostages will take place on Thursday, followed by another on Saturday.
Whether hostages are alive or dead inside Gaza has been a heartbreaking question for waiting families who have pushed Israel’s government to reach a deal to free them, fearing that time was running out.
Approximately 90 hostages are still in captivity. Prior to this announcement, Israel believed at least 35 of them were dead.
An Israeli strike in the West Bank kills 2
RAMALLAH, West Bank — Israel has carried out a strike on a vehicle in the occupied West Bank, killing two people and wounding another three.
The Palestinian Health Ministry reported the casualties from Monday's strike in the built-up Nur Shams refugee camp. It has been the scene of several Israeli military raids in recent months targeting Palestinian militants.
Hamas said the two killed were fighters in its armed wing.
Another Palestinian was killed by Israeli fire in the urban Qalandiya refugee camp near Jerusalem overnight, according to the Health Ministry. The ministry does not say whether those killed by Israeli fire are militants or civilians.
The Israeli military confirmed the strike in Nur Shams but did not immediately provide further details. It referred questions about the shooting in Qalandiya to the Israeli police, who did not immediately respond.
The West Bank has seen a surge in violence since Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack out of the Gaza Strip ignited the war there.
Israel captured the West Bank and Gaza along with east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians want all three territories for their future state.
An Israeli ex-general says the war did not end well for his country
JERUSALEM — A former Israeli general who had proposed a surrender-or-starve strategy for northern Gaza says "the war has ended very badly" for Israel.
Giora Eiland spoke to Israeli Army Radio on Monday as tens of thousands of Palestinians returned to the heavily destroyed north in accordance with a ceasefire reached with Hamas.
Eiland said that by opening the Netzarim corridor, an Israeli military zone bisecting the territory, Israel had lost leverage over Hamas and would not be able to restore it, even if it resumes the war. “We are at the mercy of Hamas,” he said.
Eiland was the main author of the so-called Generals’ Plan, which called for giving civilians in the northern third of Gaza a week to evacuate. The whole area would then be declared a closed military zone, sealed off from humanitarian aid, and anyone remaining would be considered a combatant.
Last fall, the plan was presented to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, which has not said whether it adopted parts of it. The Israeli military has denied carrying out the plan.
Around the time it was publicized, in October, Israel launched a major operation in northern Gaza and sealed it off, allowing in hardly any aid. Tens of thousands of people were forced out, and the operation caused heavy destruction.
Eiland said Israel had failed to achieve its stated goals, including destroying Hamas, removing it from power, restoring a sense of safety to Israeli border communities or safely returning dozens of hostages abducted in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered the war.
He said that Hamas, by contrast, “has largely achieved everything it wanted.”
Israeli fire kills 2 in southern Lebanon as residents try to return to their homes
BEIRUT — Israeli soldiers killed two people in southern Lebanon on Monday as residents tried to enter villages where Israeli forces remain, Lebanon's Health Ministry said.
On Sunday, Israeli forces opened fire on protesters who insisted on accessing their villages, killing 24 people and wounding more than 130, the Health Ministry said.
A U.S.-brokered ceasefire that went into effect on Nov. 27, ending a 14-month war between Hezbollah and Israel, stipulates that Israeli forces withdraw from southern Lebanon by Jan. 26. Israel blamed delays on the Lebanese army’s failure to deploy to the area, while the Lebanese army accused Israel of stalling its withdrawal, complicating its deployment.
Lebanon later agreed to extend the deadline to Feb. 18.
Despite that, residents on Monday tried to return to their villages and Israeli troops opened fire, killing two people and wounding 17 others across several southern villages, according to the Health Ministry.
An Israeli doctor says released hostages are in poor physical condition
JERUSALEM — An Israeli military doctor who has treated the returning hostages released by Hamas in recent days says they are in poor physical condition and face a lengthy recovery process.
Dr. Ami Benov told reporters on Monday that the seven young women were suffering from “mild starvation” and vitamin deficiencies. He says all of them suffered injuries in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack and that the medical care they received was poor.
“They’re not in a good shape. They’re not good physically,” he said.
Benov says their mental states are “very complicated.” He says the women were held in tunnels and deprived of sunlight for at least eight months.
He says one of the challenges will be the “grounding” process in which they gradually understand they have regained control over such decisions as what to eat, what to wear and where and when to meet their families.
“We feel obligated to give them the option to do whatever they feel right,” he said. But he said everything is being done in “very small steps.”
Death toll rises to 24 in the southern Lebanon confrontation with Israeli troops
BEIRUT — The death toll in the confrontation between protesters and Israeli troops who remained in southern Lebanon has risen to 24 with 134 wounded, the Lebanese Health Ministry said Monday.
Under a U.S.-brokered ceasefire, Israeli troops were to withdraw from southern Lebanon, and Hezbollah was to move north of the Litani River by Jan. 26, with the Lebanese army and U.N. peacekeepers deploying in the south.
However, implementation delays left Israeli forces in over a dozen villages, sparking violent protests Sunday by residents expecting to return home by the deadline. Lebanon has subsequently agreed to extend the ceasefire deadline until Feb. 18.
A Hezbollah lawmaker said Monday that his group, alongside the Lebanese army, is prepared to liberate villages where Israeli troops remain.
“The residents of these villages where the occupation remains are getting ready with our national army to liberate it,” Hassan Fadlallah said, speaking at an event in the southern city of Bint Jbeil, where Hezbollah’s reconstruction arm launched a rebuilding project.
Israel arrests 2 citizens on suspicion of working for Iran
TEL AVIV, Israel — Israeli authorities say they have arrested two Israeli citizens for allegedly conducting missions on behalf of Iran, the latest in a string of similar cases announced in recent months.
A statement from the Israeli police and the Shin Ben internal security agency on Monday said that Yuri Eliasfov and Georgi Andreev, residents of northern Israel, were in contact with an Iranian agent and carried out various missions under his instruction.
The missions included passing on classified military material obtained during Eliasfov’s military service in an air defense unit. It said the suspects also spray-painted graffiti and hung banners with pro-Iranian messages in various locations across the country, all allegedly in return for financial compensation.
The prosecution is expected to file an indictment against them in the coming days.
In September, an Israeli citizen was indicted for involvement in an Iranian assassination plot against top Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. One month later, authorities arrested another Israeli who was allegedly involved in an Iranian plot to assassinate an Israeli scientist.
The Shin Bet says Iranian agents are known to use social media and promises of cash to try to enlist Israelis to carry out such missions.
Israel and Iran's long-running shadow war has burst into the open over the past year, with the two countries directly exchanging fire in April and again in October.
Tens of thousands return to devastated northern Gaza as Israel lifts its closure under truce
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Tens of thousands of Palestinians streamed into the most heavily destroyed part of the Gaza Strip on Monday as Israel lifted its closure of the north for the first time since the early weeks of the 15-month war with Hamas in accordance with a fragile ceasefire.
Massive crowds of people walking with their belongings stretched along a main road running next to the coast in a stunning reversal of the mass exodus from the north at the start of the war that many Palestinians had feared Israel would make permanent.
Palestinians who have been sheltering in squalid tent camps and schools-turned-shelters for over a year are eager to return to their homes — even though they have likely been damaged or destroyed.
Yasmin Abu Amshah, a mother of three, said she walked 6 kilometers (nearly 4 miles) to reach her home in Gaza City, where she found it damaged but still habitable. She also saw her younger sister for the first time in over a year.
“It was a long trip, but a happy one,” she said. “The most important thing is that we returned.”
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