Some troops had been expected to withdraw to allow hundreds of thousands of displaced Gazans to go home. But Israel said the hostage exchange before that step had not gone as agreed. Hamas accused Israel of stalling.

Delayed by a dispute over the release of a specific hostage, an agreement has been reached to allow Palestinians to return to northern Gaza.

Israel has begun allowing Palestinians to return to the heavily destroyed north of the Gaza Strip for the first time since the early weeks of the 15-month war with Hamas, in accordance with a fragile