CAIRO, January 29. /TASS/. Over the past 72 hours, more than 500,000 displaced Palestinians, who had been forced to leave their homes due to military operations, have returned to their residential areas in the Gaza and North Gaza governorates, the enclave's government said on its Telegram channel.
However, it provided no information on the number of Gaza residents who are still planning to return to the north of the enclave.
Tensions escalated again in the Middle East on October 7, 2023, when militants from the Gaza Strip-based radical Palestinian group Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel’s territory, killing residents of Israeli border settlements and taking over 250 hostages, including women, children, and the elderly. In response, Israel initiated a military operation in Gaza with the objective of destroying the military and political structure of Hamas and rescuing all those abducted. Military actions in the Gaza Strip continue to this day.
On January 15, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Qatar’s head of government and foreign minister, announced that Israel and Hamas, with successful mediation by Doha, Cairo, and Washington, had reached a deal to release hostages from Gaza and establish a ceasefire in the region. He stated that the agreement would take effect on January 19 and would be implemented in three phases. On the morning of January 27, Gaza residents started coming back homes.