Israeli troops withdraw from key militarised corridor that splits Gaza in two as part of ceasefire deal

9 February 2025, 12:01

displaced Gazans walking toward Gaza City on January 27, 2025, after crossing the Netzarim corridor from the southern Gaza Strip.
displaced Gazans walking toward Gaza City on January 27, 2025, after crossing the Netzarim corridor from the southern Gaza Strip. Picture: Getty

By Josef Al Shemary

Israeli troops have withdrawn from the Netzarim corridor, a militarised zone which cuts the north of the Gaza Strip off from the South, as part of its obligations under the ceasefire deal with Hamas.

Listen to this article

Loading audio...

The withdrawal is 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 Netzarim corridor, a four-mile strip of land that bisects northern Gaza from the south which 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 will fulfil another commitment to the deal, which paused the 15-month war.

Read more: 'We never gave up hope': Freed Thai hostages in tears of joy as they reunite with families after more than a year

However, the sides appear to have made little progress on negotiating the deal's second phase, which is meant to extend the truce and lead to the release of more Israeli hostages held by Hamas.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was sending a delegation to Qatar, a key mediator in talks between the sides, but the mission included low-level officials, sparking speculation that it will not lead to a breakthrough in extending the truce.

Mr Netanyahu is also expected to convene a meeting of key Cabinet ministers this week on the second phase of the deal.

Read more: 'Make Europe Great Again': Far-right European political leaders praise Trump at Madrid meeting

Tens of thousands of Palestinians forcibly displaced by the Israeli offensive continue to return to what's left of their homes.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians forcibly displaced by the Israeli offensive continue to return to what's left of their homes. Picture: Alamy

Separately on Sunday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said that a pregnant 23-year-old Palestinian woman was fatally shot by Israeli gunfire in the northern occupied West Bank, where Israeli troops have been carrying out a broad operation.

Since it began on January 19, the ceasefire deal has faced repeated obstacles and disagreements between the sides, underscoring its fragility. But it has held, raising hopes that the devastating war that led to seismic shifts in the Middle East may be headed towards an end.

On Sunday, cars heaped with belongings, including water tanks and suitcases, were seen heading north through a road that crosses Netzarim.

Under the deal, Israel is supposed to allow the cars to cross through uninspected and there did not appear to be troops in the vicinity of the road.

Read more: All major parts of DC plane and Black Hawk helicopter involved in mid-air collision recovered, investigators confirm

The Israeli officials did not disclose how many soldiers were withdrawing. Troops currently remain along Gaza's borders with Israel and Egypt and a full withdrawal is expected to be negotiated in a later stage of the truce.

During the first 42-day phase of the ceasefire, Hamas is gradually releasing 33 Israeli hostages captured during its attack on October 7 2023 in exchange for a pause in fighting, freedom for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and a flood of humanitarian aid to war-battered Gaza.

The deal also stipulates that Israeli troops will pull back from populated areas of Gaza as well as the Netzarim corridor.

In the second phase, all remaining hostages would be released in return for a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and a "sustainable calm". But details beyond that are unclear and repeated stumbling blocks throughout the first phase and the deep mistrust between the sides have cast doubt on whether they can nail down the extension.

Israel has said it will not agree to a complete withdrawal from Gaza until Hamas's military and political capabilities are eliminated. Hamas says it will not hand over the last hostages until Israel removes all troops from the territory.

Palestinians return to northern Gaza after more than a year of Israel blockade

Mr Netanyahu, meanwhile, is under heavy pressure from his far-right political allies to resume the war after the first phase so that Hamas, which carried out the deadliest attack on Israelis in their history, can be defeated.

He is also facing pressure from Israelis who are eager to see more hostages return home, especially after the gaunt appearances of the three male captives freed on Saturday stunned the nation.

Complicating things further is a proposal by US President Donald Trump to relocate the population of Gaza and take ownership of the Palestinian territory. Israel has expressed openness to the idea while Hamas, the Palestinians and the broader Arab world have rejected it outright.

The suggested plan is saddled with moral, legal and practical obstacles. But it may have been proposed as a negotiation tactic by Mr Trump, to try to ratchet up pressure on Hamas or as an opening gambit in a bargaining process aimed at securing a normalisation deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

That grand deal appeared to be rattled on Sunday as Saudi Arabia condemned remarks by Mr Netanyahu who said Palestinians could create their state in that territory.

Saudi Arabia said his remarks "aim to divert attention from the successive crimes committed by the Israeli occupation against our Palestinian brothers in Gaza, including the ethnic cleansing they are being subjected to".

In an interview on Thursday with Israel's Channel 14, Mr Netanyahu said: "The Saudis can create a Palestinian state in Saudi Arabia; they have a lot of land over there."

The United Arab Emirates, which reached a diplomatic recognition deal with Israel in 2020, also condemned Mr Netanyahu's remarks.

The war in Gaza, sparked by Hamas's attack that killed 1,200 people and saw 250 taken hostage, has killed more than 47,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities who do not differentiate between fighters and non-combatants in their count.

Vast parts of the territory have been obliterated in the fighting, leaving many Palestinians returning to damaged or destroyed homes.

Violence has surged in the West Bank throughout the war and has intensified in recent days with an Israeli military operation in the north of the territory.

The shooting of the pregnant woman happened in the Nur Shams urban refugee camp, a focal point of Israeli operations against Palestinian militants in the territory. The Palestinian Health Ministry also said the woman's husband was critically wounded by the gunfire.

Israel's ddefence minister, Israel Katz, announced on Sunday the expansion of the Israeli military operation, which started in the city of Jenin several weeks ago. He said the operation was meant to prevent Iran from establishing a foothold in the occupied West Bank.

Latest World News

See more Latest World News

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speak during joint press conference with Czech Rebublic's President Petr Pavel in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, March 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky).

Zelenskyy claims US officials influenced by Russia - as Kremlin confirms Putin portrait gift to Trump

ROMANIA-US-CRIME-INTERNET-CELEBRITY-SEXISM

Tate brothers return to Romania to 'prove their innocence' amid rape and trafficking accusations

Anti-Trump protestors take to Greenland streets as Ursula Vance and US delegation's visit branded a 'provocation'

Greenland PM brands Usha Vance and US delegation's visit a 'provocation' as anti-Trump protestors swarm streets

Tamim Iqbal was rushed to hospital after suffering a heart attack

Cricket star on life support after heart attack during match

5 police officers injured during the intervention unauthorised demonstration in the Turkish capital Ankara.

Huge protests in Turkey as crowds hit by rubber bullets and tear gas after Erdogan arrests main rival

A B&B in Rome was destroyed in explosion, leaving a British man seriously injured.

British tourist 'fighting for his life' with burns to 70% of body after Rome B&B explosion

Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks to media at Rideau Hall

Canadian PM Mark Carney calls snap election as he says Donald Trump 'wants to break us' with trade war

LEWIS HAMILTON at the Shanghai Audi International Circuit, Shanghai, China on 23 March 2025 Credit: /Every Second Media

Lewis Hamilton disqualified from Chinese Grand Prix after breaking F1 rule by just four millimetres

Pope Francis waves as he appears at a window of the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic in Rome

Pope arrives back at Vatican as he makes first public appearance after five-week stay in hosptial

Residents examine the rubble of a destroyed building following an Israeli military strike on the Nuseirat Refugee Camp, five kilometers north-east of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, on March 23, 2025.

Senior Hamas leader killed as Gaza death toll passes 50,000, with largest hospital struck

Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu

Turkish president Erdogan's main political rival arrested and jailed ahead of trial

Pope Francis Delivers His Weekly Audience At The Vatican

Pope Francis to make first public appearance today as he returns to Vatican after five weeks in hospital

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has named his plan the "coalition of the willing."

Trump's special envoy dismisses Starmer's Ukraine plan as a 'posture and a pose'

Pope Francis Delivers His Weekly Audience At The Vatican

Pope Francis returning to Vatican tomorrow after five weeks in hospital with double pneumonia

The Pope intends to appear at his hospital window tomorrow in his first public appearance since February.

Pope Francis to make first public appearance tomorrow after battling double pneumonia

Smoke billows from the site of Israeli artillery shelling that targeted the area of the southern Lebanese village of Yohmor on March 22, 2025.

Six dead including a child as Israel launches strikes into Lebanon leaving ceasefire with Hezbollah on knife edge