Palestinians return to northern Gaza after Israeli withdrawal from corridor
Newshour
BBC
4.4 • 984 Ratings
🗓️ 9 February 2025
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Israeli forces have withdrawn from a military zone cutting off northern Gaza from the rest of the territory, allowing hundreds of Palestinians to return home. The Netzarim Corridor had effectively cut the Gaza strip in two, trapping hundreds of thousands of people in the south. Meanwhile, Israeli negotiators have returned to Qatar to continue talks on the ceasefire agreement with Hamas. We speak to our correspondent in the region as well as an analyst on Middle Eastern conflict resolution. Also on the programme: An expert on human trafficking in Libya takes us through the motivations of smugglers, after the bodies of more than 50 migrants were found in a mass grave in the south-east of the country; and Donald Trump expected to make history as the first sitting US president to attend the Super Bowl. (Picture: Palestinians travel from the southern Gaza Strip towards the north following the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Netzarim Corridor, central Gaza Strip Credit: Mohammed Saber/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to News Hour from the BBC World Service. We're coming to you live from London. |
| 0:08.7 | I'm James Menendez. And we are going to begin in Gaza because today hundreds of Palestinians have been streaming into the northern part of the territory to return to what, if anything, is left of their homes. |
| 0:20.0 | They were able to do so after Israeli forces withdrew from the military zone, |
| 0:24.7 | known as the Netsarim corridor, that effectively cut the Gaza strip in two, |
| 0:29.0 | trapping hundreds of thousands of people who'd fled to southern Gaza to escape the fighting. |
| 0:34.4 | Well, now, as part of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, they're |
| 0:38.8 | able to go back. They've deprived us of food and water, but they haven't deprived us of air. |
| 0:46.2 | They haven't managed to do that. We remain alive. Today I came to the north to check the situation and thank God the road was good |
| 0:57.6 | and the Israeli army have withdrawn. We are fine as long as we've been back and everyone is good |
| 1:03.3 | and will all return. The BBC's Wira Davis is in Jerusalem and he's been telling me more |
| 1:08.5 | about this latest stage of the ceasefire and hostage release |
| 1:11.9 | agreement. Several hundred thousand people, almost a million people, were forced to become |
| 1:17.4 | internal refugees. They left the heavily populated areas of northern Gaza during the war because |
| 1:23.5 | of the scale of the Israeli bombing, one of the biggest bombing campaigns in military history, |
| 1:28.0 | and they ended up most of them in refugee camps or towns in southern Gaza. And they've been |
| 1:33.4 | unable to get back to their home areas in northern Gaza because of the Israeli military occupation. |
| 1:40.2 | Now, the Israeli army has now partially withdrawn from an area known as the Netsarim corridor. |
| 1:45.5 | This is basically a road that runs across the middle of Gaza and, in effect, cuts Gaza in half. |
| 1:51.6 | But as part of the ongoing ceasefire deal, Israel has withdrawn from the area, |
| 1:56.5 | and that has allowed more people to get back to their homes, |
| 2:00.4 | or at least where their homes used to be in the north. |
| 2:03.0 | And the scenes today are of people with cars and trucks and carts loaded with possessions they've got to go back to their home areas. |
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