Palestinian officials say more than 650,000 displaced people were blocked from entering the northern Gaza Strip, according to Reuters. Israel blocked access to the region after it accused Hamas of failing to release 29-year-old Arbel Yehud during an agreed upon hostage-prisoner exchange.

Hamas' failure to release a civilian woman on Saturday, as the deal stipulated, raised concerns that the agreement could collapse.

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.

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.

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’s ceasefire agreements in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip came under strain from deadly violence and a dispute with Hamas over the fate of an Israeli hostage, raising the stakes for international efforts to keep the deals on track.

Health officials in Gaza say a Palestinian man was killed and seven people were wounded by Israeli fire overnight

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 militant group Hamas’s war with Israel,

A Hamas official reacted with suspicion to the remarks, echoing longstanding Palestinian fears about being driven permanently from their homes.

With a ceasefire agreement pausing the war between Israel and Hamas, Israeli troops have withdrawn from Gaza city centers.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.