“Tens of thousands of displaced people” await near the Netzarim corridor to return to the north.
AFP
Israel and Hamas have mutually accused themselves of being responsible for the delay in the application of the truce agreement, preventing the return of tens of thousands of displaced to the northern Gaza Strip devastated by the war.
“Tens of thousands of displaced people expect near the Netzarim corridor to return to the north,” a spokesman for civil defense, Mahmoud Bassal, told AFP at midday.
This seven kilometers long, militarized by Israel strip, cut Gaza in two from the Israeli border to the Mediterranean Sea, thus insulating the north of the southern territory.
Ismail Al-Thawabtah, director general of the media office in Gaza, estimates that “between 615,000 and 650,000” the total number of conduits wishing to leave in the North.
The majority of them came on foot, a few by car. Trucks are also waiting for their turn, in the heart of a crowd gathered along the Mediterranean Sea. Some even installed a tent on the aisle.
A major blockage
All are determined to pass, even if they find in the north is only ruins and destruction.
The very strategic netzarim corridor constitutes a major blockage in the application of the truce agreement between Israel and Hamas, which entered its second week.
Sunday morning, the office of the Israeli Prime Minister accused the Palestinian Islamist movement of two violations of the agreement.
He argued that Arbbel Yehuda, a civil hostage, had “not been released” on Saturday when it was deemed priority, and that the “status list” of the hostages – dead or alive – had “been” subject ”as he demanded.
Two hours later, Hamas, in turn, held “Israel responsible” for blocking, specifying “following the file with the mediators” Qataris and Egyptians.
-Since Saturday, Palestinian police have had to prevent the displaced from reaching the area, in order to avoid potentially violent incidents with the Israeli army, which blocks the passage with tanks and armored vehicles.
“May the army withdraw”
The details of the truce agreement have never been published, multiplying rumors, conjectures and various manipulations. Hamas affirms that Israeli forces were to withdraw from Netzarim as of Saturday, after the second exchange which allowed on Saturday to release four Israeli hostages and 200 Palestinian prisoners.
Information confirmed by certain Israeli media, citing sources at the heart of power, but never officially by the government of Benjamin Netanyahu.
The displaced people are thus taken in vintage by the negotiations. The UN considers that around 90% of the Gaza population (2.4 million inhabitants) were moved by the war.
Rafiqa Soubh, originally from Beit Lahia (North), dismantled the tent in which she and her family were sheltered on Saturday to flee the fights and bombs. “We want to return, even if our houses are destroyed. We miss our houses so much, ”she justified with AFP in Weseirat, the southern city closest to the Netzarim corridor.
She hoped to be free to move, “even if we have to sleep near the dam”. In vain.
In Gaza-Ville, in the north of the territory, the excitement won the inhabitants at the idea of seeing their loved ones or their neighbors again. “I’m waiting for my whole family. I cannot describe my excitement, ”says Alaa Rajab, a 21 -year -old Gazaouie. “I hope they will return to security and that the army will withdraw.”
Part of the fate of these movements is therefore now based on that reserved by Hamas at the Israeli Arbel Yehud.
Two Hamas sources assured AFP on Saturday that it was “living and healthy”, one of them even claiming that it would be “released within the framework of the third exchange” of prisoners, planned for the Saturday, February 1.
(afp)
