The opening was delayed for two days over a dispute between Hamas and Israel, which said the militant group had changed the order of the hostages it released in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.

Palestinians trying to return to northern Gaza were stranded on two highways in a standoff that threatened to undo the shaky peace between Israel and Hamas.

The scale of destruction in the northern Gaza strip could be seen from southern Israel on Saturday morning as Israel and Hamas are expected to swap more hostages for Palestinian prisoners.

With a ceasefire agreement pausing the war between Israel and Hamas, Israeli troops have withdrawn from Gaza city centers. For the first time in eight months, NPR got a glimpse of Rafah this week.

Even before the first phase is completed, the fragile cease-fire agreement that has paused 15 months of war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas faces increasingly long odds of lasting or even reaching phase two.

Israel accused Hamas of violating a fragile ceasefire by changing the order of hostages it has released, stopping thousands of Palestinians from returning to their homes in the northern Gaza Strip on Sunday.

President Trump indicated Sunday that the way to help the situation in Gaza is to “clean out the whole thing.” Aboard Air Force One, Trump said Gaza is a “real mess,” after the Palestinian

Netanyahu is under pressure from right-wing members of his coalition government to resume bombardment of the Gaza Strip until Hamas is destroyed. Several have said they received assurances from Netanyahu that after the first phase of the truce ends, Israeli troops and fighter jets will once again launch in and over Gaza.

Hundreds of Gazans, many of them carrying the same tarps and ropes they used as shelters in southern Gaza during the war with Israel, are waiting in Nuseirat (central Gaza) for the moment when the Israeli army will allow them to cross the Netzarim Corridor and return to the northern part of the Gaza Strip.

Israel kept thousands of Palestinians from returning to their homes in northern Gaza on Sunday as it accused Hamas of violating a fragile ceasefire by changing the order of hostages it has released.