By WAFAA SHURAFA and MELANIE LIDMAN, Associated Press
WADI GAZA, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says President Donald Trump has invited him to visit the White House on Feb. 4, which would make him the first foreign leader to visit Washington in Trump’s second term.
The visit comes as the United States is pressuring Israel and Hamas to continue a ceasefire that has paused a devastating 15-month war in Gaza. Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.
Under the ceasefire, more than 375,000 Palestinians have crossed into northern Gaza since Israel allowed their return on Monday morning, the United Nations said Tuesday. That represents over a third of the million people who fled in the war’s opening days.
Many of the Palestinians trudging along a seaside road or crossing in vehicles after security inspections were getting the first view of shattered northern Gaza under the fragile ceasefire that is now in its second week.
They were determined, if their homes were damaged or destroyed, to pitch makeshift shelters or sleep outdoors amid the vast piles of broken concrete or perilously leaning buildings. After months of crowding in squalid tent camps or former schools in Gaza’s south, they would finally be home.
“It’s still better for us to be on our land than to live on a land that’s not yours,” said Fayza al-Nahal as she prepared to leave the southern city of Khan Younis for the north.
Hani Al-Shanti, displaced from Gaza City, looked forward to feeling at peace in whatever he found, “even if it is a roof and walls without furniture, even if it is without a roof.”
Under the ceasefire, the next release of hostages held in Gaza, and Palestinian prisoners from Israeli custody, is set to occur on Thursday, followed by another exchange on Saturday.
In the ceasefire’s six-week first phase, a total of 33 hostages taken in the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, that ignited the war should be released, along over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners.
Israel this week said a list provided by Hamas confirmed the fears that eight of the 33 hostages to be freed are dead, bringing fresh grief to Israeli families who have long pressed the government to reach a deal to bring everyone home before time runs out.
On Tuesday, one of the first hostages to be released under the current ceasefire – just the second in the war – shared a glimpse of life in captivity.
Naama Levy, 20, wrote on social media that she spent most of the first 50 days alone before being reunited with other soldiers kidnapped from her military base on Oct. 7, well as other civilian captives.
“They gave me strength and hope,” she wrote. “We strengthened each other until the day of our release, and also afterwards.”
A surge in humanitarian aid into Gaza continued under the ceasefire.
“In this past week alone, approximately 4,200 trucks carrying aid have entered the Gaza Strip following inspections,” Israel’s deputy foreign minister, Sharren Haskel, said.
Under the deal, 600 trucks of aid are meant to enter per day.
Lidman reported from Nahariya, Israel.
Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
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