\n<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s military withdrew Sunday from a key corridor dividing the Gaza Strip, leaving nearly all of the territory\u2019s north as required by a tenuous cease-fire agreement with Hamas.<\/p>\n
The military\u2019s departure from the Netzarim Corridor in Gaza came as the Israeli government sent a delegation to Qatar over the weekend to discuss the next group of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners to be freed during the cease-fire agreement\u2019s initial phase, which came into effect last month and is ongoing. The gaunt appearances of three Israeli hostages who were released on Saturday, stoking public comparisons<\/a> to Holocaust victims, heaped new pressure on the negotiations.<\/p>\n In a statement on Sunday, the Israeli military said troops were \u201cimplementing the agreement\u201d to leave the corridor and allow hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to continue returning home to northern Gaza.<\/p>\n Two Israeli military officials and a soldier in Gaza who were not authorized to discuss the situation publicly or by name said the troops had already left the Netzarim Corridor by Sunday morning.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Hamas also said that Israeli troops had departed from the Netzarim Corridor, saying in a statement that it was \u201ca victory for the will of our people.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The departure from the Netzarim Corridor means that Israeli forces have withdrawn from almost all of northern Gaza \u2014 except for a nearby buffer zone on the Israeli border. The Israeli military had ordered a mass evacuation of northern Gaza in the early days of the war and patrolled the corridor, in part to prevent Palestinians from returning.<\/p>\n Gaza\u2019s interior ministry alerted Palestinians heading north on Sunday that their vehicles could still be inspected by foreign security contractors<\/a> there to prevent weapons from being transferred from the south.<\/p>\n \u201cWe call on citizens to be careful and adhere to moving according to the currently permitted mechanism for their safety,\u201d the interior ministry said in a statement Sunday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Israeli troops had already partially withdrawn from the Netzarim Corridor, leaving the foreign contractors to fill the void. Their complete withdrawal was required under the first 42-day phase of the cease-fire agreement \u2014 which is now at the halfway point \u2014 and necessary to advance to the next stage of the deal to fully bring an end to the war in Gaza.<\/p>\n Significant new pitfalls to reaching an agreement for the next phase emerged over the past week, however, after President Trump said that the United States could take over Gaza<\/a> and turn it into the \u201cRivera of the Middle East\u201d by relocating its Palestinian residents.<\/p>\n On Sunday, Saudi Arabia\u2019s foreign ministry again rejected the proposal, repeating that no lasting peace agreement could be reached without creating a sovereign Palestinian state \u2014 a diplomatic goal for generations, but one that officials and experts now say<\/a> is likely all but impossible to achieve.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The emaciated appearance<\/a> of three Israeli hostages who were freed by Hamas on Saturday has also spurred widespread concern in Israel that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had not acted quickly enough to ensure their or others\u2019 release \u2014 increasing the pressure on the Israeli government to bring the rest of the captives home and advance to the second phase of a deal.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n But despite the weekend meetings in Qatar, little to no progress was expected on negotiating the next stage until Mr. Netanyahu convenes a meeting of his top security officials in the coming days.<\/p>\n In an interview on Saturday in Washington, where he had been meeting with the Trump administration, Mr. Netanyahu said Hamas, not him, was to blame for the hostages\u2019 conditions. He predicted that at least a half-dozen more hostages would be released by the end of next week.<\/p>\n