Media office in Gaza says more than 300,000 people return to the north
The Government Media Office in Gaza says “more than 300,000 displaced” Palestinians have returned to the territory’s north after Israel’s military authorised the returns from this morning.
The brief statement on Telegram said they “returned today … to the governorates of the north” of Gaza.
What happens at the checkpoints located at the Netzarim Corridor?
Hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians returning to northern Gaza have passed through checkpoints in a central zone of the enclave where scanners check their cars and vehicles.
Here is how the system works, according to witnesses who have passed through:
- The checks are run by Egyptian contractors with the help of a US private security firm although there have been no reports of US citizens on the ground.
- Checkpoints appear to be staffed by Egyptian security personnel. Members of the inspection team wear black jackets marked “Egyptian-Qatari Committee”.
- Armed Egyptian security personnel in uniform are also present but remain behind the main checking area.
- As vehicles approach the checkpoint, all passengers get out, leaving only the driver in the vehicle who proceeds into a drive-in inspection point, where the car is checked for weapons and explosives by a scanner.
- According to witnesses, the whole process for each vehicle takes a few minutes.
- Along the roads on either side of the checkpoint in the so-called Netzarim Corridor, local police maintain order. At the same time, engineering units with sniffer dogs check for unexploded ordnance.
Child killed as Israel attacks horse cart in central Gaza
Several other civilians were wounded in the incident as well, the Wafa news agency reports.
Israeli troops shelled the cart in the west of Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, killing Nadia Mohammed al-Amoudi and wounding three others. This is one of many incidences of troops opening fire on displaced Palestinians as they move throughout the Strip in the wake of the ceasefire.
Al-Awda Hospital confirmed to Wafa that it received the body of the child and the three wounded people.
One killed following second Israeli attack in central Gaza
We have been reporting on the Israeli military’s attacks on displaced Palestinians moving throughout Gaza since the ceasefire came into force, including firing on a horse cart in the Nuseirat refugee camp, killing a young child.
The Wafa news agency now reports that a Palestinian man has been killed and several more people injured after Israeli forces bombed a bulldozer as it was attempting to remove a vehicle stuck in Nuseirat.
Israeli military says slain child ‘posed a threat’ to its troops
As we have reported, Israeli forces have shot and killed a child and wounded three others after attacking a horse-drawn cart in central Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp, in one of several incidents of displaced Palestinians being fired on as they move throughout the Strip following the ceasefire.
In a statement, the Israeli military has now claimed they attacked the group as they “posed a threat” to its troops.
“In central Gaza, an [Israeli military] aircraft fired to distance several suspicious vehicles that were moving northward in an area that is not authorised for passage according to the agreement, and without inspection, in violation of the terms of the agreement,” the military claimed.
Israeli forces also fired on a Palestinian man in north Gaza who “posed a threat to them”, it said.
“[Israeli forces] fired warning shots to distance him. The suspect did not move away, and since he continued to pose a threat to the troops, additional shots were fired in order to remove the threat,” it said.
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