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Israeli troops completed their withdrawal from the Netzarim Corridor, a military zone that cut the north of Gaza off from the south, Hamas has said.
The militant group on Sunday described the withdrawal as a victory.
Video showed hundreds of Palestinians in cars and carts laden with their belongings returning to northern Gaza, where scenes of destruction and mounds of earth piled up by departed Israeli bulldozers awaited. At Netzarim, Palestinians could move on foot while the military zone and the Salah Al Din Road fully reopened.
“The withdrawal of the Zionist occupation army from the Netzarim axis is a victory for the will of our people,” Hamas said in a statement. It added that a police force had arrived in the area to monitor the return of Gazans. The Israeli military has not officially commented on the withdrawal from the eastern part of the corridor.
For many Gazans, the journey was bittersweet. The once familiar Welcome to Gaza sign that greeted them at the entrance of Gaza city was no longer standing. They said that the Israeli army has destroyed the area. Homes and landmarks were replaced by vast stretches of rubble and sand.
Mahmoud Jundia, 42, resident of Shujaiya who had been displaced to Khan Younis with his family of seven, said that “Everything has changed.”
He arrived at the Netzarim checkpoint on Sunday for the first time since they were displaced in more than a year.
“The destruction has intensified to a level we never imagined. No houses, no landmarks, nothing remains of what we once knew. Israel has systematically erased every sign of Palestinian life here,” he told The National.
“The area is now covered in sand dunes, with freshly bulldozed roads. Israeli military activity is evident everywhere – tank tracks, vehicle imprints, and extensive fortifications.”
About 700,000 residents of northern Gaza fled or were evicted to the south of the enclave at the start of the war. The majority of those displaced were forced to move several times after Israeli troops entered southern Gaza.
Displaced Gazans were prevented from returning to their homes in the north through the Netzarim Corridor, which was used to control the movements of the enclave's residents.
Israeli forces began their withdrawal last month and the first Gazans were allowed to walk back. A checkpoint run by Egypt and Qatar remains at the corridor and Israeli forces still control Gaza's borders.
“People are happy that the road has reopened and that they are no longer under the occupation’s control,” Mr Jundia said. “But our real joy will come only when the checkpoint is permanently removed and the road is restored to how it once was.”
The 6km corridor – named after the former Israeli settlement of Netzarim in Gaza – was used as an occupation and buffer zone during Israel's 15-month war on the enclave. By some estimates at least 600 houses are thought to have been levelled by the Israeli army in the area, a practice followed in other parts of the enclave, including Rafah in the south and Shujaiya neighbourhood in Gaza city.
Netzarim holds significant historic and strategic importance to Israel and was once described by former prime minister Ariel Sharon as having the same importance as Tel Aviv.
One of the first Israeli settlements in Gaza in 1972, it was dismantled in 2005 after the Israeli government unilaterally decided to withdraw. Netzarim became synonymous with far-right Israelis fiercely opposed to dismantling settlements.
An investigation published by Israeli newspaper Haaretz detailed accounts of Israeli forces indiscriminately firing at civilians in the area.
The Israeli army threatened to shoot those “trespassing” on Salah Al Din Road and Al Rashid motorway, which were used by Gazans heading south.
Hours after Israeli troops withdrew, Gaza's civil defence said Israeli forces on Sunday shot and killed three civilians in Gaza city.
The Israeli army said it fired “warning shots” and threatened to attack those approaching troops. Mahmoud Bassal, spokesman for Gaza's civil defence agency, said there were “three martyrs and several injured as a result of Israeli occupation forces opening fire on civilians in the eastern areas of Gaza city” and urged residents to avoid the eastern areas and Israeli military positions.
“Israel's security policy regarding Gaza is clear: anyone who enters the buffer zone will pay the price,” Defence Minister Israel Katz said.
The withdrawal comes as uncertainty looms over the second and third phases of the ceasefire. An Israeli arrived in Doha for talks on the truce that were supposed to start on Monday but Mr Netanyahu delayed the delegation’s departure.
