Long lines of Palestinians -- some kneeling to kiss the soil as they stepped into the northern part of the strip -- were making their way home on Monday.

An unending stream of people marched up the coast of Gaza on Monday, carrying their belongings in plastic bags and repurposed flour sacks through the central city of Nuseirat after Israel reopened access to the territory's north.

Palestinians began returning to the north of the war-battered Gaza Strip on Monday after Israel and Hamas said they had reached a deal for the release of six more hostages.

They had been due to travel north of the Netzarim Corridor, a strip of land controlled by Israel, on Saturday.

Displaced Palestinians began streaming across the central Netzarim Corridor, returning to their homes in northern Gaza after Israel and Hamas resolved a hiccup that threatened to derail their cease-fire.

Masses of Palestinians, who were displaced by months of war, began moving towards the north of the Gaza Strip on Monday after Israel and Hamas said they had reached a deal for the release of another six hostages.

Tens of thousands of displaced Gaza residents ended months of exile in temporary camps and began returning to what was left of their homes on Monday after Israel opened a corridor into the north of the battered enclave.

Netanyahu is under pressure from right-wing members of his coalition government to resume bombardment of the Gaza Strip until Hamas is destroyed. Several have said they received assurances from Netanyahu that after the first phase of the truce ends, Israeli troops and fighter jets will once again launch in and over Gaza.

Even before the first phase is completed, the fragile cease-fire agreement that has paused 15 months of war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas faces increasingly long odds of lasting or even reaching phase two.

Some troops had been expected to withdraw to allow hundreds of thousands of displaced Gazans to go home. But Israel said the hostage exchange before that step had not gone as agreed. Hamas accused Israel of stalling.

A Palestinian man was killed and seven people were wounded by Israeli fire overnight, local health officials said Sunday, as crowds gathered in hopes of returning to the northern Gaza Strip under a fragile week-old ceasefire aimed at winding down the war.