Multitudes pack coastal road after passage to Gaza's north reopens

Thousands walked up the main coastal road, while hundreds more moved along the nearby beach on the shore of the eastern Mediterranean.

More than a week after a ceasefire took effect in the Gaza Strip, Israel reopened access to the north after striking an agreement for more hostage releases, with Gazans overjoyed at the opportunity to return after being forced from their homes by the fighting.

"This day feels like a holiday," Shadi Adas told AFP, describing hundreds of people chanting "God is greatest" and slogans associated with Eid al-Adha celebrations.

"Thousands of people" had gathered along the road to welcome back the displaced returnees, said Adas, who was returning to his home in Gaza City.

An Israeli drone could still be heard buzzing in the sky overhead, but it was mostly drowned out by the excited chatter of the crowd.

Even after the ceasefire brought a pause to 15 months of war in the Gaza Strip, residents displaced from the territory's devastated north had found themselves unable to return.

Israel said it would not allow access through the so-called Netzarim corridor until Hamas released Arbel Yehud, a hostage held in Gaza since the Palestinian militant group's unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack.

But after Hamas agreed to free Yehud and two other hostages before Friday -- in addition to the three scheduled for Saturday -- Israel opened passage to the north on Monday morning.
'We will rebuild'
Lamees al-Iwady, a 22-year-old resident of Gaza City who was displaced several times to Gaza's centre and south, returned to her hometown Monday.

"This is the happiest day of my life," she told AFP.

"I feel as though my soul and life have returned to me," she continued, insisting that her neighbourhood's destruction was not permanent.

"We will rebuild our homes, even if it's with mud and sand."

A Gaza security official told AFP that "more than 200,000 displaced people have returned to Gaza and North Gaza governorates in the first two hours".

He said that authorities were still waiting for the green light to allow the displaced to cross in their vehicles via Salah al-Din road, Gaza's main passageway between the north and south.

Gaza's government media office said that "more than 5,500 government employees" were working "to facilitate the return of displaced people" from the territory's centre and south to Gaza City and the north.

Many who manage to return will be greeted by little more than rubble after months of bombing destroyed much of northern Gaza.

The government media office said Monday that people in Gaza City and the north needed 135,000 tents and caravans.

"The scale and extent of destruction caused by the occupation army in Gaza and North Gaza governorates have exceeded 90 percent," the office said.

Meanwhile, the threat of renewed fighting and bombardments has not disappeared.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz warned Monday that the military would continue to strictly enforce the terms of the ceasefire.

"Anyone who breaks the rules or threatens (Israeli) forces will pay a heavy price," he wrote on X.