US and Egyptian contractors screening vehicles at Gaza checkpoint

According to a Palestinian security official, under the ceasefire and hostage release agreement between Israel and Hamas, security contractors from the US and Egypt are inspecting Palestinian vehicles traveling from southern Gaza to the north. These contractors are tasked with ensuring that vehicles are not carrying weapons as they pass through checkpoints.

Video footage showed hundreds of cars, vans, and donkey carts lined up waiting to pass, while tens of thousands of pedestrians walked along the coastal road to the west without being checked. Displaced Palestinians were scheduled to begin returning to the north over the weekend, but Israel delayed this until Hamas agreed to release Israeli civilian hostage, Aber Yehud, and two others on Thursday.

Qatar, one of the mediators of the ceasefire agreement, announced late on Sunday that Hamas would also hand over another three hostages on Saturday, and provide information on the condition of the remaining hostages scheduled to be released in the first phase of the six-week plan. The Israeli Prime Minister’s office subsequently confirmed receiving the list of names from Hamas, and said that Ms. Yehud would be released alongside Israeli female soldier Agam Berger and one other hostage.

Since the start of the ceasefire on January 19th, seven hostages have been released in exchange for nearly 300 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. A total of 33 hostages are due to be handed over before the end of the first phase on March 2nd. Approximately one million residents of northern Gaza fled to the south when the war began in October 2023, as the Israeli military issued mass evacuation orders ahead of a ground invasion of the Palestinian territory.

Many of those displaced were subsequently forced to move multiple times as Israeli forces entered southern Gaza in December and ordered further evacuations. They have also been prevented from returning to their homes via the Netzarim corridor, a closed military zone stretching from the Gaza-Israel border to the Mediterranean Sea. Under the ceasefire agreement with Hamas, Israeli forces have partially withdrawn from the western part of the corridor over the past eight days, but did not allow displaced Palestinians to pass through until Monday.

Pedestrians have been allowed to walk along the coastal Rashid Street without being checked. But vehicles must use Salah al-Din Street and undergo weapons checks where it crosses the corridor. A Palestinian security official told the BBC that the process of checking the lines of waiting vehicles was very slow on Monday morning, with many vehicles piled high with belongings. US and Egyptian security contractors are at the inspection area alongside teams from the Red Cross, while Israeli forces are monitoring the process from a distance.

The official added that vehicles were being asked to wait at a Hamas-controlled Palestinian police checkpoint about 300 meters (984 feet) from the area. Then, 20 vehicles at a time were being allowed through, and passed through two scanners operated by the contractors - a process they said should take 40 minutes. Mohammed Rifi, while waiting in line with his family in their car, declared that he would be “returning to life” once he reached Gaza City.

Rifi told Reuters: "I feel like I died once, and now I am returning to life. The feeling is indescribable - to see my family, my people, my community.” He added: “My children haven't seen their home, don't know their home, know nothing. They ended up on sand. There is no life... I want to sit on the rubble and rest."

Last week, US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steven Vitkov, said that “external monitors” would be stationed at the crossing point of the Netzarim corridor to “make sure that people are safe, that people going in do not have weapons, and that no one has bad intentions.” A source familiar with the operational plan told the BBC that ceasefire mediators had convened a “multinational coalition” to “oversee, manage and secure a key vehicle checkpoint along Salah al-Din Road to facilitate the safe return of displaced Palestinians to northern Gaza.”

The source said the coalition “aims to ensure the orderly movement of vehicles while preventing weapons from being transported north, in accordance with the terms of the ceasefire,” and that the checkpoint would be staffed by “neutral parties with regional experience and security expertise.” They added: “Those currently involved in the coalition include strategic planning and logistics company Safe Reach Solutions (SRS); global trusted integrated security solutions provider UG Solutions; and an Egyptian security firm, reflecting its diverse and international composition.”

The Washington Post reported last week that contractor staff would be authorized to confiscate any weapons or military supplies found, but that the vehicles carrying them and their passengers would be allowed to continue their journeys. A UG Solutions official was quoted as saying that Palestinians “will be passing through that checkpoint, we’re not stopping them. They just cannot carry anything that is deemed unsafe.” They also stressed that staff were “just there to manage the checkpoint” and had no military mission or ability to detain combatants.

However, according to an internal UG Solutions document seen by the paper, they will be equipped with assault rifles, sniper rifles, and handguns.