Palestinian officials say more than 650,000 displaced people were blocked from entering the northern Gaza Strip, according to Reuters. Israel blocked access to the region after it accused Hamas of failing to release 29-year-old Arbel Yehud during an agreed upon hostage-prisoner exchange.

Palestinians began returning to the north of the war-battered Gaza Strip on Monday after Israel and Hamas said they had reached a deal for the release of another six hostages.The breakthrough preserves a fragile ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war,

The opening was delayed for two days over a dispute between Hamas and Israel, which said the militant group had changed the order of the hostages it released in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.

Even before the first phase is completed, the fragile cease-fire agreement that has paused 15 months of war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas faces increasingly long odds of lasting or even reaching phase two.

The Israel-Hamas cease-fire has brought a measure of relief to Israelis and Palestinians. But everyone recognizes that what comes next is the real

Hundreds of Gazans, many of them carrying the same tarps and ropes they used as shelters in southern Gaza during the war with Israel, are waiting in Nuseirat (central Gaza) for the moment when the Israeli army will allow them to cross the Netzarim Corridor and return to the northern part of the Gaza Strip.

Palestinians were expected to begin walking north on Monday morning. Hours earlier, the week-old truce between Israel and Hamas appeared to wobble.

Gaza: In continuation of the launched land bridge to supply the Gaza Strip with fuel that started from the Karem Salem crossing, the first batch of

Witnesses said the first residents arrived in Gaza City in the early morning of Jan 27. Read more at straitstimes.com.

Palestinians trying to return to northern Gaza were stranded on two highways in a standoff that threatened to undo the shaky peace between Israel and Hamas.