"The occupation is stalling under the pretext of prisoner Arbel Yehud, despite the movement informing mediators that she is alive and providing all the necessary guarantees for her release," Hamas said in a statement on Sunday.
"Hamas holds Israel responsible for the delay in implementing the agreement," it added.
On Saturday, Israel refused to start withdrawing from the Netzarim corridor, which divides south and north Gaza, thus blocking the start of the return of thousands of displaced Palestinians from the south to the north of the strip as per the ceasefire agreement.
On Sunday, Israeli soldiers also refused to open the Rashid and Salah Al-Din Streets, which connect the strip from south to north, as per the agreement, to allow queued Palestinians to return north.
On Saturday, the office of Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: "Yehud was supposed to be released today, and Israel will not allow the passage of Gazans to the northern part of the Gaza Strip until the release of civilian Arbel Yehud... is arranged," it said.
Earlier Saturday, Hamas released four Israeli female soldiers to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) under the truce deal.
The Israeli side had expected that Hamas would release three female soldiers plus a civilian, Arbel Yehud, not four female soldiers.
On Saturday afternoon, Israel released 200 Palestinian prisoners on Saturday in exchange for the freed four Israeli captives but blocked the return of the displaced until Yehud was released.
Later in the day, an informed Egyptian source told Al-Qahera News that the Palestinian side informed Egyptian and Qatari mediators that Israeli captive Arbel Yehud, 29, is alive and will be released next Saturday.
Tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians have been stranded in vehicles and foot to return to their homes in northern Gaza all day Saturday and Sunday but to no avail.
Many carried personal belongings on carts, ready to rebuild their lives after 15 months of an Israeli genocidal war on the strip.
Ismail Al-Thawabtah, director general of the government media office in Gaza, put the total number of Palestinians wanting to return to the north at between 615,000 and 650,000.
Displaced Palestinians wait along the Salah al-Din road in Nuseirat near the blocked Netzarim corridor, to cross to the northern part of the Gaza Strip. AFP
Determined to return home!
The UN estimates that approximately 90 percent of Gaza's 2.3 million residents have been displaced - some multiple times - by Israeli carpet bombing of the strip during the war.
Around 1.6 million are sheltering in overcrowded camps, where airstrikes have destroyed or damaged 60 percent of buildings, including homes, schools and hospitals.
Many had been forced south by months of Israeli bombardment of the north, which intensified in October 2024, and now face long waits and harsh conditions in the open as they attempt to return.
Ismail al-Shanbari voiced determination to rebuild despite the devastation.
"We’re tired of this humiliation and displacement," he said.
"Whether it’s in the north or the south, we will return to our land, even if we have to set up tents on the rubble of our homes," WAFA reported.
Sara Baker, seven months pregnant, expressed her resolve to return home.
"I have no idea what happened to my home in Gaza, but I will go back—even if I have to walk the entire way," she told WAFA.
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