A Hamas official said Israeli troops completed their withdrawal on Sunday from a strategic road cutting through the Gaza Strip, part of a fragile truce deal that Israel said it was implementing.
But diplomatic tensions were high after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to suggest in an interview that a Palestinian state could be established on Saudi territory, drawing the ire of Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations.
As negotiations are set to begin on the next phase of the Gaza ceasefire, which is intended to pave the way for a permanent end to the war, Palestinians on Sunday were able to cross the Netzarim Corridor, where an Israeli checkpoint used to stand.
An official from the Hamas-run interior ministry said "Israeli forces have dismantled their positions... and completely withdrawn their tanks from the Netzarim Corridor on Salaheddin Road, allowing vehicles to pass freely in both directions."
AFP journalists saw no troops in the area as cars, buses, pickup trucks and donkey carts travelled along the road from both the north and south. AFP
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