Sameera Casmod | sameerac@radioislam.co.za
27 January 2025 | 14:00 CAT
3-minute read

After a one-day delay, tens of thousands of displaced Gazans made their way from the southern parts of the strip to their homes in the north. The delay was caused by a row between Israel and Hamas over the terms of their ceasefire deal, with Israel accusing the governing organisation of reneging on the agreement by not releasing prisoner Arbel Yehud on Saturday. The terms of the deal did not include her release, and Hamas withheld details of additional detainees who are set to be released in the subsequent phases of the truce.

An agreement has since been reached, with Israel opening the Netzarim Corridor at approximately 07:00 a.m. EET this morning and Arbel Yehud set to be released on Thursday.

“[There are] incredible scenes of Palestinians moving very determinedly from the south of Gaza to the north of Gaza,” Moulana Ebrahim Moosa said in this week’s Palestine Report on Radio Islam International.

The return home has been hailed as a great victory. Despite Israel’s chilling and incontrovertible intent to commit genocide in the enclave, particularly in the northern area, many north-Gazan residents remained in the area throughout the onslaught. They even withstood Israel’s renewed genocidal efforts in the form of the ‘General’s Plan’. Any inroads that were made in this regard have been reversed, signalling Israel’s dismal failure.

“Still they’re going back to nothing, and we are expecting very dire reports of the extent of what truly happened in the north,” Moulana Moosa said.

Since the Gaza ceasefire agreement in January 2025, a total of seven Israeli prisoners have been released by Hamas. On January 19, 2025, three female hostages were released. During the hostage handover on January 25, 2025, armed fighters from the military wing of Hamas escorted four prisoners of war to a stage at Palestine Square in the centre of Gaza City before handing them over to a Red Cross representative.

Israeli security chiefs who had been overseeing the handover from a command centre reportedly expressed fear that the handover would ‘get out of control’ and Hamas would ‘score yet another propaganda coup.’

The prisoners have been reported to have said that they displayed confidence during the handover in an act of alleged defiance and to counter ‘humiliation’, with one soldier having said ‘we showed them on the stage that we were not fazed … we are stronger than them’.

“They [Israel] also went on to claim… that Hamas fighters were deliberately withheld from battle against Israel to preserve their military capacity for the war’s conclusion and ensure that Hamas would have the capacity to enforce law and order afterwards,” Moulana Moosa said, emphasising that there is no evidence to support this claim to date.

Preliminary accounts from Israeli prisoners indicate that Hamas treated Israeli prisoners with kindness and dignity. Some prisoners learnt Arabic during their time as prisoners of war and even spoke to the Israeli helicopter pilot in Arabic on the way home. Other detainees described harsh conditions, including limited food and medical care. However, Israel’s onslaught and siege on Gaza were the reasons for food and medical care shortages in the enclave.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump has proposed that Gazans must be resettled in Jordan and Egypt, describing Gaza as a “demolition site” that must be “clean[ed] out.” The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor expressed “deep concern” over his remarks and issued a statement saying Palestinians should not have to pay a further price for this genocide by being forcibly removed from their homeland.

“This has been the Israeli intent, not only from this genocide but from the onset of Zionist presence in the land of Palestine, and re-articulated every now and then from 1948 right until the present,” Moulana Moosa said, adding that anybody who plans to annihilate the Palestinians will be up against a formidable people with an iron will.

“The fact that people are returning to the north of Gaza today shows how difficult it is for these plans to actually take place. What it also tells us is Trump is opening up regarding possible day-after plans that have been spoken about behind closed doors in Israel, with the United States; with particular Arab states as well,” he said.

In a separate development, Ali Abunimah, a Palestinian journalist and founder of the media platform Electronic Intifada, was arrested in Switzerland this weekend. He was attending an education event when plainclothes officers detained him, citing vague concerns about national security. His arrest has drawn condemnation from press freedom advocates, as it is part of a targeted attack on Palestinian voices. Legal proceedings are underway, with reports indicating that Abunimah will be deported.

Listen to the Palestine Report on Sabaahul Muslim with Moulana Habib Bobat.