The return of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to the devastated northern Gaza Strip has hit a last-minute rift with Israel linking the move to the release of Israeli hostage Arbel Yehud.

Israel has set the opening of the Netzarim Corridor, which separates the southern Gaza Strip from its northern part, as a condition for the handing over of the hostage Yehud, claiming that Hamas did not abide by a condition in the truce agreement, which was not announced, requiring it to release the civilian hostages “first,” while a source from the Islamic Jihad movement said that Yehud was a soldier and not a civilian.

Under the terms of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, Yehud was supposed to be among the first two groups of hostages released on Jan. 19 and Jan. 25, according to Israeli authorities. Israel had demanded Yehud’s release before the release of the captive female soldiers, four of whom were freed on Saturday.

The resistance movements in Gaza announced yesterday (Sunday) that the Jews are “alive and in good health.”

Who is Erbil Jews?

Yehud, 29, was kidnapped during the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023, from her home in Nir Oz, a village in southern Israel near the border of the Palestinian enclave. Yehud was kidnapped with her partner, Ariel Konio, who is also still in Gaza.

Yehud is the last civilian hostage Israel believes is likely alive. Another civilian woman, Sheri Bibas, remains in Gaza after being kidnapped from Nir Oz with her two young sons, Ariel, who was 4 at the time, and Kfir, who was 9 months old.

Yehud’s brother, Dolev Yehud, had been missing for several months and was also presumed to have been kidnapped. It later turned out that he had never reached Gaza: in June 2024, Israeli authorities declared him dead after his remains were identified in Nir Oz. The New York Times described the Israeli hostage at the center of the crisis as a test of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas.

According to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, an Israeli organization that advocates for the release of hostages, Yehud works in a program at Groovy Tech, an educational center in southern Israel that focuses on space exploration and technology. According to the forum, Yehud had returned from a tour of South America shortly before the 2023 attack.

Israeli insistence

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement on Saturday that Israel "will not allow Gaza residents to cross into the northern part of the Gaza Strip until the release of civilian hostage Arbel Yehud, who was supposed to be released today (Saturday)," is arranged. Israel justified the decision not to release Yehud, whose release was considered a priority, and Hamas' failure to provide a list of the hostages, both living and dead.

Netanyahu later announced late Sunday that after negotiations with Hamas, the Palestinian movement would release three hostages on Thursday and three more on Saturday in exchange for allowing Gazans displaced from the enclave to return to the north of the strip. Netanyahu's office said in a statement that "after intensive and decisive negotiations (...) Hamas will release (...) Thursday (...) Arbel Yehud, soldier Agam Berger and another hostage," according to Agence France-Presse.

Civilian or conscript?

The Israeli Prime Minister's Office and Israeli media describe Yehud as an Israeli "civilian," while a source in Islamic Jihad, who is inside the Gaza Strip, told CNN on Saturday that Yehud was a soldier, adding that "she was detained by the Al-Quds Brigades (the military wing of Islamic Jihad) because she was a soldier trained in the Israeli military's space program."

In turn, a statement issued by the Resistance Committees in Palestine said: “We affirm our full commitment to the agreement reached on the issue of the captive Arbil Yahud.” The media official in the Resistance Committees in Palestine, Muhammad Al-Buraim, said in a statement that “the Zionist captive Arbil Yahud was captured by a joint group of mujahideen from the Al-Nasser Salah Al-Din Brigades, the military wing of the Resistance Committees in Palestine, and the Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine.”

Al-Brim added: “The resistance committees in Palestine and the Islamic Jihad Movement have shown great flexibility in order to reach solutions, through the Palestinian negotiating delegation, and to remove all obstacles to the return of our displaced people.” He continued, saying: “We are on our way to reaching a solution to this problem that was created by the Zionist enemy, in order to thwart the agreement and sabotage the efforts of the mediators.”

Later, the Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, said that guarantees had been conveyed to mediators that Arbil Yehud was alive and well. “We have provided what is necessary to remove Israel’s pretexts to obstruct the return of residents to northern Gaza, and we will implement what the leadership of the Islamic Jihad movement decides with the mediators regarding her release,” it said in a statement.

Under the agreement, Israel will release 30 Palestinian prisoners for every civilian hostage and 50 Palestinian prisoners for every Israeli female soldier released by Hamas.