Qatar announced, on Sunday evening, new understandings between Hamas and Israel, according to which the displaced people of the Gaza Strip will return starting Monday morning, in exchange for handing over the hostage Arbil Yehud and others in the coming days.

This came according to a statement issued by the Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman, Majed Al-Ansari.

The statement said, "Within the framework of the ongoing efforts led by the mediators, an understanding was reached between the two parties that Hamas will hand over the hostage Arbel Yehud and two other hostages before next Friday, and Hamas will also hand over 3 additional hostages on Saturday in accordance with the agreement."

The understandings also include "Hamas providing information on the number of hostages that will be released within the framework of the first phase of the agreement."

In return, the understandings include, according to the statement, that "the Israeli authorities will allow, starting Monday morning, the return of displaced citizens in the Gaza Strip from the south to the northern areas of the Strip."

Israel will also hand over “a list of the names of 400 people who have been arrested since October 7, 2023, every Sunday in the first stage.”

On Sunday, the government media office in the Gaza Strip said that tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians in the southern Gaza Strip are waiting for the opening of the "Netzarim" axis, to be able to return to their areas of residence, according to the ceasefire agreement that Israel is accused of evading commitment to.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu linked the return of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza to the northern part of the Strip to the release of prisoner Arbel Yehud, according to a statement issued by his office on Saturday.

The main dispute lies in the classification of the prisoner. While the Palestinian factions insist that she is considered a "military" prisoner, Israel insists that she is a "civilian" prisoner, according to Hebrew media.

The Hebrew website "Walla" (private) says that the prisoner Arbel Yehud is being held by the military wing of the Islamic Jihad, and has been classified as a soldier because she was trained within the Israeli military space program.

For its part, Hamas confirmed through mediators that Arbel Yehud (29 years old) is alive and in good health, indicating that she will be released next Saturday, but Israel was quick to question this promise.

On January 19, a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel came into effect. Its first phase will last for 42 days, during which negotiations will begin to begin a second and then a third phase, mediated by Egypt, Qatar, and the United States.

With American support, between October 7, 2023 and January 19, 2025, Israel committed genocide in Gaza, leaving more than 158,000 Palestinian martyrs and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 14,000 missing.