The withdrawal from the corridor, which cut off northern Gaza from the rest of the Strip, is part of the Hamas-Israel ceasefire deal.
The Israeli military has completed its withdrawal from Gaza’s Netzarim Corridor – a requirement under phase one of the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas agreed last month.
“Israeli forces have dismantled their positions and military posts and completely withdrawn their tanks from the Netzarim Corridor on Salaheddin Road, allowing vehicles to pass freely in both directions,” a Hamas official said on Sunday, referring to Salah al-Din Street.
The so-called Netzarim Corridor refers to a strip of land that cut off northern Gaza from the rest of the Strip. According to the ceasefire agreement, the deadline for withdrawal was February 9.
The full withdrawal of Israeli troops from the corridor took place a day after Hamas and Israel conducted their fifth captive-prisoner swap, which saw the Palestinian group release three Israeli captives in exchange for 183 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
In a statement, Hamas said Israel’s complete withdrawal from the corridor signals a “continuation of the failure of the goals of the war of extermination against the Palestinian people”.
It said the return of displaced Palestinians to their homes and the continuation of the exchange of captives and prisoners refutes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “lie” about achieving victory in the 15-month war on the enclave.
“Gaza will remain a land liberated by the hands of its people and its fighters, and forbidden to the occupying invaders and any external force,” it said.
Israel created the corridor at the beginning of its war on Gaza. It is a closed-off military zone that stretches from Israel’s boundary with Gaza to the Mediterranean Sea and is about 6km (3.7 miles) wide.
The corridor was named after Netzarim, the last Israeli settlement to be closed in Gaza in 2005, under the then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s plan for Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
Reporting from Doha, Qatar, Al Jazeera’s Stefanie Dekker said the corridor was a strategic Israeli military move – giving it access, control and oversight.
“For Palestinians, it was yet another land grab – a corridor of suffocation, attacks and death. The Israeli army has been accused of shooting and killing indiscriminately anyone who dared to come near,” she said.
“Israeli media have quoted soldiers saying they feel that withdrawing is a failure – leaving behind the corridor that had become a symbol of their power, their control, and their victory,” she added.
Reporting from northern Gaza, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said the Israeli military’s withdrawal from the corridor is a hope for more free movement for people in the enclave.
“It will be very difficult for people who were displaced from this area to return to their homes. It’s hard to imagine where are they going to stay here other than just setting up tents here and there,” he said.
“The hope is now that with the withdrawal of the Israeli military, there is more free movement, a flow of vehicles and aid trucks going all the way to the northern part of the Strip,” he added.
Mouin Rabbani, a non-resident fellow at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs, told Al Jazeera the Netzarim Corridor “shouldn’t have a future” and “should disappear”.
“Israel has not only occupied what they call the Netzarim Corridor, but placed numerous structures there that demonstrated their determination to maintain a permanent presence there, to have this capacity to bisect the Gaza Strip, to paralyse transportation and movement within it at will,” he said.
“That has failed once again, and they are being compelled to withdraw from the Netzarim Corridor and hopefully never to return.”
