US President Donald Trump floated a plan Saturday to "just clean out" Gaza, and said he wants Egypt and Jordan to take Palestinians from the territory in a bid to create Middle East peace.

Describing Gaza as a "demolition site" after the Israel-Hamas war, Trump said he had spoken to Jordan's King Abdullah II about the issue and expected to talk to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Sunday.

"I'd like Egypt to take people. And I'd like Jordan to take people," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.

Lebanon said Monday it would extend a ceasefire deal with Israel until mid-February, even though the Israeli military failed to meet a deadline to withdraw its troops and killed 22 people in the south of the country.

The deadly violence recorded by health officials Sunday came as residents tried to return home as Israel was scheduled to pull its troops from southern Lebanon.

The withdrawal deadline is part of a ceasefire agreement reached two months ago that ended Israel's war with Iran-backed Hezbollah, which had left the Lebanese militant group weakened.

Israel said Palestinians could begin returning to the north of the war-battered Gaza Strip on Monday after a deal was reached with Hamas for the release of another six hostages, according to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office.

The breakthrough preserves a fragile ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, which has devastated the Gaza Strip and displaced nearly all its residents, paving the way for more hostage-prisoner swaps under a deal aimed at ending the more than 15-month conflict.

Azzam al-Shallalta dropped to his knees and wept at his mother's feet as he arrived in the West Bank city of Ramallah with other Palestinian prisoners released under the Gaza ceasefire on Saturday.

A jubilant crowd carried Shallalta on their shoulders from the bus that brought him from jail, the freed prisoner still wearing his grey prison tracksuit.

"My situation was heartbreaking, truly heartbreaking. We pray to God to free all our brothers we’ve left behind," he told the crowd, his head shaved and his face pale and thin under a long red beard.

A loud cheer swept through the crowd gathered at a Tel Aviv plaza known as Hostage Square, where giant screens livestreamed the long-awaited release of four Israeli hostages on Saturday, the latest to be freed under a Gaza ceasefire deal.

Hundreds gathered at the square in the early morning in anticipation of the release of the four hostages, all women soldiers. Some attendees wore yellow t-shirts bearing the slogan: "You are not alone."

Four Israeli women soldiers freed from captivity in Gaza reached Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva, central Israel, on Saturday accompanied by their parents aboard a military helicopter, AFP journalists reported.

The Israeli health ministry later confirmed that they had arrived at the hospital. It said staff there were ready to "provide comprehensive medical care, including psychological support" for the women who had spent 477 days in captivity.

Four women soldiers, abducted by Palestinian militants on October 7, 2023 while doing their military service near the Gaza border, were released on Saturday, following more than 15 months in captivity.

Liri Albag, Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa and Naama Levy were reunited with their families in Israel, the military said, with crowds shedding tears of joy as they gathered to watch their release at a plaza in Tel Aviv known as Hostage Square.

Clutching Hamas-branded gift bags and wearing military fatigues, the four Israeli hostages handed over by Hamas on Saturday to the Red Cross waved and gave thumbs up as they were paraded on stage before dozens of militants and a huge crowd.

Hundreds of Gaza residents who gathered to watch the scene responded with cheers, whistles and shouts before the women were escorted off stage and into the hands of the Red Cross, an AFP reporter said.

The Lebanese army said Saturday it was ready to deploy its forces in the country's south, accusing Israel of "procrastination" in its withdrawal under a ceasefire, a day before the pullout deadline.

Under the terms of the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire that came into effect on November 27, the Lebanese army is to deploy alongside United Nations peacekeepers in the south as the Israeli army withdraws over a 60-day period that ends Sunday.

The Israel-Hamas war has put back development in Gaza by 60 years and mobilising the tens of billions of dollars needed for reconstruction will be an uphill task, the United Nations said.

Around two-thirds of all buildings in the Gaza Strip have been destroyed or damaged, and removing the estimated 42 million tonnes of rubble will be dangerous and complex, the head of the UN Development Programme told AFP.