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• Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised Donald Trump’s proposal for US control of Gaza and population displacement.
• Israeli forces withdrew from the Netzarim Corridor, allowing Palestinians to cross freely for the first time.
• A ceasefire has largely halted fighting, with recent hostage-prisoner exchanges between Israel and Hamas.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday praised a proposal from President Donald Trump for US control of Gaza and the displacement of its population as “revolutionary”, striking a triumphant tone in a statement to his Cabinet following his return to Israel from Washington.

Trump set out a plan last week to move the Gazans out of the territory to other countries in the region, while the United States would take charge of redeveloping it, sparking a diplomatic backlash.

Meanwhile, in Gaza, Palestinians were on Sunday able to cross the Netzarim Corridor, a strategic zone cutting the narrow territory in two, after Israeli troops were said to have withdrawn.

“Israeli forces have dismantled their positions ... and completely withdrawn their tanks from the Netzarim Corridor on Salaheddin Rd, allowing vehicles to pass freely in both directions,” said an official from the Hamas-run interior ministry.

AFP journalists saw no troops in the area, as cars, buses, pickup trucks and donkey carts travelled north and south along the road.

Gaza resident Mahmoud al-Sarhi said, “arriving at the Netzarim Corridor meant death until this morning”.

This is “the first time I saw our destroyed house”, he told AFP of his home in the nearby Zeitun area.

“The entire area is in ruins. I cannot live here.”

A senior Hamas official said the Israeli withdrawal from Netzarim had been scheduled for Sunday under the terms of the truce that took effect on January 19.

‘I thought you were dead’

Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli forces had shot dead three civilians in Gaza City north of Netzarim on Sunday.

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The military said it had fired “warning shots” and hit Palestinians who had approached troops.

The Gaza war began with Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, and the ceasefire agreed ahead of Trump’s inauguration has largely halted the fighting.

Displaced Palestinians inspect piles of clothes as they cross the Netzarim corridor as they make their way to the northern parts of the Gaza Strip. Photo / AFP

The 2023 attack, the deadliest in Israeli history, resulted in the deaths of 1210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.

Militants also took 251 hostages, of whom 73 remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says the war has killed at least 48,181 people in the territory.

Under the current ceasefire, Israel and Hamas on Saturday completed their fifth hostage-prisoner exchange, with three Israeli hostages and 183 Palestinian prisoners released.

The release also brought the first indication in 16 months that hostage Alon Ohel is alive.

But a statement from his family released by campaign group Hostages and Missing Families Forum added: “He is wounded and not receiving medical treatment.”

Halfway around the world in Bangkok on Sunday, five Thai farm workers held hostage by Hamas and freed in an earlier swap wept with joy as they returned home.

“You are back, I thought you were dead,” the grandfather of 33-year-old Watchara Sriaoun told him.

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Trump sparked global outrage by suggesting on Tuesday the US should take control of the Gaza Strip and clear out its inhabitants.

Upon his return to Israel from the US, Netanyahu reiterated his support for the proposal during a Cabinet meeting.

“President Trump came with a completely different, much better vision for Israel – a revolutionary, creative approach that we are currently discussing,” the Israeli Prime Minister said.

“He is very determined to implement it, and I believe it opens up many, many possibilities for us,” he added.

Israel’s Defence Minister earlier in the week ordered the army to prepare for “voluntary” departures from Gaza.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Sunday became the latest world leaders to denounce Trump’s plan.

Displaced Palestinians cross the Netzarim corridor as they make their way to the northern parts of the Gaza Strip. Photo / AFP

“No one has the power to remove the people of Gaza from their eternal homeland,” Erdogan told journalists at Istanbul airport before flying to Malaysia.

“Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem belong to the Palestinians.”

Scholz, speaking during a pre-election debate, described Trump’s plan as “a scandal”, adding: “The relocation of a population is unacceptable and against international law.”

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With the region already on edge over Trump’s proposal, Netanyahu sparked fury when he said in a television interview that a Palestinian state – which he has long opposed – could be “in Saudi Arabia”.

The Saudi foreign ministry stressed its “categorical rejection to such statements”, while Arab League chief Ahmed Aboul Gheit said such ideas “are nothing more than mere fantasies or illusions”.

Egypt will host an Arab summit on February 27 to discuss “the latest serious developments” concerning the Palestinian territories, its foreign ministry said Sunday.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty was heading to Washington for talks, and Jordan’s King Abdullah II was due to meet Trump at the White House on February 11.

- Agence France-Presse