The ceasefire agreement between Israel, Hamas and Hezbollah is in new jeopardy Sunday as various groups slow walk responsibilities under the deal.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has withdrawn a threat to quit the government if Israel does not return to fighting in Gaza, several Israeli news sites reported on Monday.
The fragility of the truce between Israel and Hamas was laid bare on Saturday, after Israel accused Hamas of withholding a hostage, prompting a halt in the movement of Gazan civilians back to their homes in the north.
Crowds of Palestinians fill Gaza’s main coastal road as they stream north. With their belongings on their backs, they smile, hug and sing, overjoyed at the prospect of returning home after more than a year of war.
After four female Israeli soldiers were released by Hamas over the weekend, six more hostages were to be released this week. Some of those expected to be freed in the first phase of the ceasefire with Israel are thought to be dead.
They returned under a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, walking for hours to reach the bombed-out landscape.
Israel has begun allowing Palestinians to return to the heavily destroyed north of the Gaza Strip for the first time since the early weeks of the 15-month war with Hamas, in accordance with a fragile ceasefire.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio held a call with Jordan's King Abdullah on Monday, the State Department said, with the call coming two days after a suggestion by President Donald Trump that Jordan and Egypt should take more Palestinians from Gaza.