More than 500,000 people return to Gaza City amid ceasefire, as Steve Witkoff addresses Tel Aviv crowd – live

9.08pm BST Egypt confirms international peace summit News just coming through that Egypt has confirmed it will host an international summit on Monday for foreign leaders to discuss “the agreement to end the war in Gaza”. The meeting will take place in the picturesque Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh, the Egyptian presidency has said moments ago, Reuters reports. More than 20 world leaders will attend, including US president Donald Trump. 8.56pm BST Staying with Iran and diplomatic relations for a moment, there is another development. Iran does not see “any reason” to resume nuclear talks with European countries over the Islamic republic’s nuclear programme, the AFP reported just now. We truly do not see any reason to negotiate with them. What can they possibly do, and what positive outcome could such negotiations have?” said foreign minister Abbas Araghchi, referring to Britain, France and Germany, which said on Friday they would seek to restart stalled nuclear talks. Late last month, widespread United Nations sanctions against Iran came back into force for the first time in a decade, prompting anger from Tehran, after last-ditch nuclear talks with western powers failed to produce a breakthrough. The sanctions, which came into effect three months after Israel and the US bombed Iran, bar dealings related to Tehran’s nuclear and ballistic missiles programme and are also expected to have wider effects on the country’s troubled economy. 8.30pm BST Iran on Saturday said it has “no trust” that Israel will respect the terms of a Gaza ceasefire that began a day earlier, following two years of war. “We warn about the tricks and betrayals of the Zionist regime regarding previous agreements ... There is absolutely no trust in the Zionist regime,” said Iran foreign minister Abbas Araghchi, according to Agence France-Presse. Araghchi pointed to previous ceasefires that have been violated, including in Lebanon. Updated at 8.56pm BST 8.04pm BST The World Cup qualifier between Norway and Israel in Oslo on Saturday was marked by protests and a heavy security response including the use of tear gas, with Norwegian fans divided over Israel’s participation in the tournament due to the war in Gaza. Ahead of the game, hundreds of pro-Palestinian supporters gathered to protest outside the Norwegian parliament, with many wearing the jerseys of the Palestine national team. Marching towards Ullevaal Stadium with Palestinian flags and flares, the protesters gathered outside, vowing to continue until kickoff as nearby buildings displayed pro-Palestinian banners hanging from balconies. Security was tight around the stadium, with police closing several entrances hours before the match started, conducting bag searches, and reducing the number of spectators allowed in. Later, Norwegian police confirmed they had used tear gas on a group of protesters who attempted to breach the barricades surrounding the stadium as the match was being played, according to Reuters. 7.38pm BST Here is a photo of the document laying out the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, obtained by the Associated Press. It is titled “Comprehensive End of Gaza War”. Updated at 7.43pm BST 7.24pm BST Witkoff handed the microphone to Jared Kushner, who said he “couldn’t be prouder to be a friend of Israel”. He then called for lasting peace in the Middle East, and thanked the crowd for their efforts to bring the hostages home. Next to take the microphone was Ivanka Trump, Kushner’s wife and Donald Trump’s daughter, who drew huge cheers upon the mention of her father’s name. “God bless you all for standing in solidarity together through this dark chapter,” she said. The trio then left the stage as the repeated cheers of “Thank you, Trump” rang out from the crowd. Updated at 7.42pm BST 7.00pm BST Witkoff said Israeli hostages held in Gaza were coming home, in a message directed at the captives during the rally. “To the hostages themselves: you are coming home,” Witkoff said, prompting applause and cheers from thousands gathered at the Tel Aviv plaza known as Hostages Square. Addressing the families of the hostages, he added: “Your courage has moved the world.” Updated at 7.41pm BST 6.49pm BST Crowds have gathered for what could be the last rally in Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, where Israelis have rallied in the thousands on Saturday night as they anticipate the release of captives held in Gaza. Special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff told the massive crowd that he had “dreamed of this night”. “We stand here tonight, Jews, Christians, Muslims, and people from every corner of the world, united by one shared prayer, for peace,” he told the crowd. The mention of Trump’s name also drew loud cheers from the crowd, while the mention of Netanyahu was met with boos. Updated at 7.40pm BST 6.07pm BST Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner visit Gaza Strip, according to Israeli military The Israeli military said that US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner visited the Gaza Strip on Saturday, as a ceasefire announced by Israel entered its second day. Israel’s army chief lieutenant general Eyal Zamir conducted a field tour in Gaza with “US envoy to the Middle East, Mr Steven ’Steve’ Witkoff, Mr Jared Kushner, and the Commander of the United States Central Command, Admiral Brad Cooper”, the Israeli military said in a statement. Updated at 7.39pm BST 5.34pm BST Volodymyr Zelenskyy congratulates Donald Trump on Gaza ceasefire Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has congratulated Donald Trump on the Gaza ceasefire, according to an Axios correspondent. “Zelenskyy congratulated Trump on achieving the agreement to end the war in Gaza and expressed hope that now it will also be possible to end the war with Russia,” Barak Ravid reported on X. The war in Ukraine, which began with Russia’s invasion in February 2022, is a conflict that Trump has faced particular difficulty trying to end. The US president has openly voiced his frustration with both Moscow and Kyiv on several occasions at the failure to reach a peaceful agreement in the region. Updated at 7.44pm BST 4.58pm BST Emmanuel Macron to travel to Egypt Monday for peace plan talks with Trump French president Emmanuel Macron will travel to Egypt on Monday for talks on implementing a peace plan presented by Donald Trump to end the war in Gaza, the Elysee Palace said on Saturday. The plan, brokered by Trump along with Qatar, Egypt and Turkey, aims to establish a permanent ceasefire, secure the release of all hostages and restore full humanitarian access to Gaza, the president said. Macron will meet regional partners to discuss the next steps in carrying out the agreement. He will also reaffirm France’s commitment to a two-state solution as the basis for lasting peace, security and reconstruction in the region, the Elysee said. Updated at 7.45pm BST 4.33pm BST More than 500,000 people return to Gaza City after ceasefire takes effect Gaza’s civil defence agency on Saturday said more than 500,000 people had returned to Gaza City since a ceasefire took effect the previous day. “More than half a million people have returned to Gaza [City] since yesterday,” Mahmud Bassal, a spokesperson for the civil defence, a rescue service operating under Hamas authority, told Agence France-Presse. Updated at 7.49pm BST 4.00pm BST Summary of the day so far It is 6pm in Gaza and Israel. Here is a summary of the main developments covered on the blog so far today: Israel has begun transferring prisoners to two jails ahead of their release as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal, designed to lead to the release of hostages held by Hamas, the prison service said on Saturday. Thousands of staff, including prison officers, “operated throughout the night in order to implement the government’s decision: ‘The framework for the release of all Israeli hostages’,” a statement said. Israel is expected to release about 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, including 250 serving long sentences for serious security offences, in exchange for the remaining hostages in Gaza. A list Israel published on Friday did not include high-profile prisoner Marwan Barghouti. Netanyahu’s office has confirmed it refuses to release Barghouti. The hostage and prisoner releases are expected to begin on Monday, two Egyptian officials briefed on the talks and a Hamas official said, although another official said they could occur as early as Sunday night. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to be publicly named speaking about the negotiations, reported the Associated Press (AP). Hamas’s disarmament as part of US president Donald Trump’s plan for Gaza is “out of the question”, a Hamas official told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Saturday. “The proposed weapons handover is out of the question and not negotiable,” the official said. The US president has indicated the issue of Hamas surrendering its weapons would be addressed in the second phase of the peace plan. Trump has said that “for the most part, there is consensus” on how the next stages of how the Gaza ceasefire plan will work, but admitted that “some of the details … will be worked out”. In comments made on Friday, and reported by various news outlets, Trump spoke about the remaining hostages in Gaza, adding that Hamas were gathering them “now”. He said: “they’re in some pretty rough places”. The head of the US Central Command (Centcom) said on Saturday he visited Gaza to discuss post-conflict stabilisation and insisted no US troops will be deployed there. Adm Brad Cooper wrote on X that he had just returned from a trip to Gaza to discuss the creation of a Centcom-led “civil-military coordination centre” which will “support conflict stabilisation”. However, about 200 US troops have arrived in Israel to help retrieve hostages and monitor the ceasefire. The US military will coordinate a multinational taskforce which will deploy in Gaza and is likely to include troops from Egypt, Qatar, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. Tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians returned to their Gaza neighbourhoods on Saturday, weaving through dust-shrouded streets as bulldozers clawed through the wreckage of two years of war and a ceasefire held in its second day. Aid groups are preparing to scale up relief work, with Doctors Without Borders, the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) stating that they are ready to step up aid shipments. Trucks carrrying boxes of WFP aid were seen on Saturday arriving in Khan Younis and being distributed among Palestinians. A UN official speaking to the AP on the condition of anonymity said the UN had been given the green light by Israel to begin delivering scaled-up aid into Gaza starting on Sunday. Unicef and its partners are urging Israel to reopen more crossings and allow aid to flow into Gaza more freely. Speaking from central Gaza, Unicef spokesperson Tess Ingram said: “A ceasefire alone is not enough … it also needs to ensure a surge of humanitarian aid that begins to address the tremendous damage that has been done over the past two years.” Cogat, the Israeli military body in charge of humanitarian aid, said that more than 500 trucks entered Gaza on Friday, although many crossings remain closed. With a declared famine still under way in parts of the strip, Unicef has 1,300 trucks ready to enter, with more on the way, Ingram said. Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, and her Spanish counterpart, Pedro Sánchez, will travel to Egypt to attend an international summit on Gaza on Monday, their respective governments have confirmed. Trump has previously said he plans to meet “a lot of leaders” in Cairo on Monday to discuss the future of Gaza. Representatives from a range of countries, including the UK, Germany, France and Qatar, are expected to be in attendance. Gaza’s civil defence agency has said it recovered the bodies of 150 Palestinians since the ceasefire came into effect, while 9,500 are still missing. It added that 300,000 people have arrived in Gaza City since the truce began. Officials in Gaza have said that 5,000 public operations have been carried out since the ceasefire came into effect on Friday, including efforts to restore water and sewage infrastructure, as well as secure damaged buildings. About 1,200 medical and healthcare operations were conducted, such as treating the wounded and monitoring those injured, Al Jazeera reported, citing the Gaza government media office. Protesters flooded the streets of central London to march in support of Palestine on Saturday. Tens of thousands of demonstrators attended the march, organised by the Palestine Coalition, which includes the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Stop the War and other groups. International journalists in Israel have called for reporters to be granted immediate access to Gaza after the rapidly negotiated ceasefire came into effect, joining a long list of international media organisations demanding press freedom in the devastated territory. In a statement released on Friday, the Foreign Press Association (FPA) urged Israel to “immediately open the borders and allow international media free and independent access to the Gaza Strip” now that hostilities have ceased. Lebanese president Joseph Aoun condemned Israel on Saturday for carrying out overnight strikes on civilian facilities that the health ministry said killed at least one person. The Lebanese health ministry said an Israeli strike on the al-Msayleh area left one person dead and seven others injured. Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan will meet Syrian officials, in Ankara on Sunday, the Turkish foreign ministry said. Defence minister Yasar Guler, intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin, and their Syrian counterparts will attend the security cooperation meeting, the ministry said in a statement on Saturday. Updated at 4.16pm BST 3.39pm BST Hamas official says disarmament as part of Trump's Gaza plan is 'out of the question' Hamas’s disarmament as part of US president Donald Trump’s plan for Gaza is “out of the question”, a Hamas official told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Saturday. “The proposed weapons handover is out of the question and not negotiable,” the official said. The US president has indicated the issue of Hamas surrendering its weapons would be addressed in the second phase of the peace plan. 3.27pm BST In response to a query by the Guardian on Unicef’s plans to scale up its aid operation as a result of the Gaza ceasefire, a spokesperson for UN agency said on Saturday: We expect the ceasefire will allow us to scale up significantly from tomorrow [Sunday]. Unicef has more than 1,300 trucks stationed at points around the Gaza Strip, ready to bring in tents, nutrition supplies, medical supplies and more. The ceasefire must, finally, afford humanitarian actors the opportunity to safely roll out the massive response inside the Gaza Strip that is so desperately needed. This includes unimpeded access to reach all children and families with essential food and nutrition, health care and psychosocial support, clean water, and sanitation, education, and learning, as well as cash assistance and the resumption of commercial trucking operations. Unicef has been bringing trucks in consistently for months and continue to do so, including this past week. In recent days, Unicef brought in hygiene kits, baby diapers and tents. From tomorrow [Sunday], we expect to collect supplies for children with disabilities, tents, hygiene kits, water tanks, RUTF [ready-to-use therapeutic food], menstrual hygiene supplies, winter clothes, plastic tarps and diapers. As the scale-up comes into effect, we will be prioritising nutrition supplies to fight the famine, items for the production of safe drinking water and other urgent water and sanitation needs, as well as supplies to help families cope with the impending winter. 3.03pm BST Israel moves prisoners ahead of Gaza deal exchange Israel has begun transferring prisoners to two jails ahead of their release as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal, designed to lead to the release of hostages held by Hamas, the prison service said on Saturday. Thousands of staff, including prison officers, “operated throughout the night in order to implement the government’s decision: ‘The framework for the release of all Israeli hostages’,” a statement said, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP). About 2,000 Palestinian prisoners are to be freed from Israeli jails, including 250 serving long sentences for serious security offences. In exchange, Hamas has until Monday to hand over its 48 remaining Israeli hostages – living and dead. Updated at 4.14pm BST 2.36pm BST Images on the newswires show aid arriving via trucks in Gaza today: 2.31pm BST Taking advantage of the ceasefire, Raja Salmi walked back to her home in Gaza City, where weeks of Israeli bombardment and ground operations had destroyed entire neighbourhoods, said to harbour thousands of Hamas fighters. “We walked for hours, and every step was filled with fear and anxiety for my home,” Salmi told Agence France-Presse (AFP). When she reached the al-Rimal neighbourhood, she found her house destroyed. “It no longer exists. It’s just a pile of rubble,” she said, adding: I stood before it and cried. All those memories are now just dust. At al-Rantisi hospital in Gaza City, a facility for children and cancer patients, AFP footage showed wards reduced to heaps of overturned metal beds, gaping ceilings and scattered medical equipment. “I don’t know what to say. The images speak louder than any words: destruction, destruction, and more destruction,” said Saher Abu al-Atta, a resident who had returned to the city. 2.14pm BST Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan will meet Syrian officials, in Ankara on Sunday, the Turkish foreign ministry said. Defence minister Yasar Guler, intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin, and their Syrian counterparts will attend the security cooperation meeting, the ministry said in a statement on Saturday. Security cooperation between Turkey and Syria will be discussed, it added. Fidan urged Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces on Wednesday to abandon their “separatist agenda”, a day after the group’s leader and Syria’s government announced a ceasefire. 1.52pm BST Top US military commander visits Gaza and reaffirms no US troops to be deployed there The head of the US Central Command (Centcom) said on Saturday he visited Gaza to discuss post-conflict stabilisation and insisted no US troops will be deployed there. Adm Brad Cooper wrote on X that he had just returned from a trip to Gaza to discuss the creation of a Centcom-led “civil-military coordination centre” which will “support conflict stabilisation”. However, as reported earlier, about 200 US troops have arrived in Israel (see 1.14pm) to help retrieve hostages and monitor the ceasefire. The US military will coordinate a multinational taskforce which will deploy in Gaza and is likely to include troops from Egypt, Qatar, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. Cooper wrote on X: America’s sons and daughters in uniform are answering the call to deliver peace in the Middle East in support of the commander in chief’s direction in this historic moment. Cooper was appointed in early August to lead Centcom, the US military command responsible for the Middle East. Updated at 3.39pm BST 1.34pm BST “The most basic necessities are still urgently needed in Gaza: medical equipment, medicines, food, water, fuel, and adequate shelter for two million people who will face the approaching winter without a roof over their heads.” Jacob Granger, Gaza coordinator for Doctors Without Borders told Agence France-Presse (AFP). Representatives of Granger’s organisation, the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said they were ready to step up shipments, but much remains unclear. “The difficulty we have now is questions of access,” said Antoine Renard, WFP director for Palestine, speaking to AFP from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza. The WFP, which leads the group of organisations handling food security, has begun discussions with Cogat, the Israeli defence ministry agency for civilian affairs in the territories. On Friday, empty WFP trucks were seen by AFP leaving Khan Younis in southern Gaza and heading to the Kerem Shalom crossing to be loaded with food aid for distribution inside Gaza. The Trump plan foresees a return to the UN-led aid system in place before January 2025, when Israel sealed Gaza’s borders and a private US-led operation took over aid distribution. “But the conditions on the ground are different,” Renard said. Since Israel’s latest offensive into the cities in the north of Gaza last month, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been driven from the homes – many of which were destroyed – into central and southern Gaza. This has shifted pressure for food aid into a now overcrowded area whose original residents were already struggling. The Trump plan states “full aid will be immediately sent to the Gaza Strip” as soon as the agreement comes into effect, “without interference from either party”. AFP reports that several humanitarian sources expressed optimism, despite concerns about security and registration procedures, on which Israel has yet to provide guidance. Updated at 1.54pm BST 1.14pm BST Aid groups preparing to scale up relief work Aid groups were preparing to scale up relief work, one of the many challenges ahead as a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas entered its second day, reports the Associated Press (AP).“When people get there, they’re going to find rubble. They’ll find that their homes and their neighbourhoods have been reduced to dust,” Unicef spokesperson Tess Ingram told the AP on Friday. Unicef and its partners are urging Israel to reopen more crossings and allow aid to flow into Gaza more freely. Meanwhile, about 200 US troops arrived in Israel to help retrieve hostages and monitor the ceasefire.Speaking from central Gaza, Ingram said: A ceasefire alone is not enough. Yes, it stops the killing and injuring of children, hopefully, but it also needs to ensure a surge of humanitarian aid that begins to address the tremendous damage that has been done over the past two years. Cogat, the Israeli military body in charge of humanitarian aid, said that more than 500 trucks entered Gaza on Friday, although many crossings remain closed. With a declared famine still under way in parts of the strip, Unicef has 1,300 trucks ready to enter, with more on the way, Ingram said. The aid is among the 170,000 metric tonnes that have been positioned in neighbouring countries awaiting permission from Israel to restart deliveries that have been suspended.The days since the announcement of the ceasefire have moved swiftly. Israel’s military confirmed it had taken effect on Friday and said the 48 hostages still in Gaza would be freed on Monday. A UN official, speaking to the AP on condition of anonymity to discuss details not yet public, said Israel also approved expanded aid deliveries starting Sunday. Updated at 2.29pm BST 1.05pm BST Gaza’s civil defence agency has said it recovered the bodies of 150 Palestinians since the ceasefire came into effect, while 9,500 are still missing. It added that 300,000 people have arrived in Gaza City since the truce began. Around 700,000 people from Gaza City and the north were displaced by Israel’s latest offensive, which included heavy aerial bombardment as ground troops pushed into densely populated neighbourhoods. 12.53pm BST Officials in Gaza have said that 5,000 public operations have been carried out since the ceasefire came into effect yesterday, including efforts to restore water and sewage infrastructure, as well as secure damaged buildings. About 1,200 medical and healthcare operations were conducted, such as treating the wounded and monitoring those injured, Al Jazeera reported, citing the Gaza government media office. A further 850 rescue and relief missions were carried out by Gaza’s civil defence, police and municipal teams, who recovered bodies and began clearing the rubble. More than 900 service missions also aimed restore water and sewage lines, remove waste, and open streets in various residential neighbourhoods. Approximately 700 humanitarian missions were carried out to distribute food parcels. 12.40pm BST Protesters have flooded the streets of central London to march in support of Palestine today. Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators are expected to attend the march, organised by the Palestine Coalition, which includes the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Stop the War and other groups. The Metropolitan police said it has put measures in place to minimise disruption and prevent clashes between the protesters and a counter-demonstration organised by Stop The Hate. Updated at 1.16pm BST 12.20pm BST US troops have started arriving in Israel to set up a coordination centre that will oversee the implementation of the ceasefire agreement in Gaza, it has been reported. The troops are not expected to enter the Gaza Strip, ABC News reported, citing two sources familiar with the matter. Earlier this week, senior US officials told reporters that 200 troops will initially be on the ground with a “civil-military coordination center” operated by US Central Command. They will help facilitate the flow of humanitarian aid, as well as logistical and security assistance into the territory, according to the Associated Press. Updated at 1.16pm BST 12.05pm BST Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, and her Spanish counterpart, Pedro Sánchez, will travel to Egypt to attend an international summit on Gaza on Monday, their respective governments have confirmed. Donald Trump has previously said he plans to meet “a lot of leaders” in Cairo on Monday to discuss the future of Gaza. Representatives from a range of countries, including the UK, Germany, France and Qatar, are expected to be in attendance. 11.45am BST Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner after a government meeting to approve the US-brokered deal to release all hostages and implement a ceasefire in Gaza: 11.34am BST Here are some images coming in via the newswires: 11.11am BST Malak A Tantesh, a young reporter who has contributed to the Guardian’s coverage, has written about a harrowing two years in besieged Gaza. You can read her account here: Related: ‘Gateway to hell’: young reporter’s harrowing two years in besieged Gaza 10.55am BST The Trump plan calls for Israel to maintain an open-ended military presence inside Gaza, along its border with Israel. An international force, comprised largely of troops from Arab and Muslim countries, would be responsible for security inside Gaza. The US would lead a large internationally funded reconstruction effort, reports the Associated Press (AP).The plan envisions an eventual role for the Palestinian Authority – something Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long opposed. But it requires the authority, which administers parts of the West Bank, to undergo a sweeping reform programme that could take years.According to the AP, the Trump plan is even more vague about a future Palestinian state, which Netanyahu firmly rejects. 10.41am BST Israel is expected to release about 2,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the remaining hostages in Gaza. A list Israel published on Friday did not include high-profile prisoner Marwan Barghouti, the most popular Palestinian leader and a potentially unifying figure, reports the Associated Press (AP). Israel views him and other high-profile prisoners as terrorists and has refused to release them in past exchanges.Khalil al-Hayya, a senior Hamas official and lead negotiator, said on Thursday evening that all women and children held in Israeli jails will be freed.The hostage and prisoner releases are expected to begin on Monday, two Egyptian officials briefed on the talks and a Hamas official said, though another official said they could occur as early as Sunday night. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to be publicly named speaking about the negotiations, reports the AP.A relative of one of the Israeli hostages believed to have died in captivity says the family hopes that his body will be returned for burial.“It’s a measured sense of hope in all hostage families,’’ said Stephen Brisley, whose sister, Lianne Sharabi, and her two teenage daughters were killed in the 7 October 2023 attack. Lianne’s husband, Eli Sharabi, was eventually released, but his brother, Yossi, is believed to have died in an airstrike in January 2024. The family hopes to give him a dignified burial. “We hold our hope lightly because we’ve had our hopes dashed before,” Brisley told the AP from his home in south Wales. Updated at 10.43am BST 10.21am BST International journalists urge Israel to allow reporters into Gaza after ceasefire deal International journalists in Israel have called for reporters to be granted immediate access to Gaza after the rapidly negotiated ceasefire came into effect, joining a long list of international media organisations demanding press freedom in the devastated territory. In a statement released on Friday, the Foreign Press Association (FPA) urged Israel to “immediately open the borders and allow international media free and independent access to the Gaza Strip” now that hostilities have ceased. The organisation also noted that the supreme court is expected to hear arguments on 23 October, “after more than a year in which the state has been allowed to delay its response”. Since 7 October 2023, Israel has prevented international journalists from entering Gaza and reporting on the war, with the few allowed in under strict military supervision on guided tours arranged by the Israel Defense Forces. The international media has relied on Palestinian journalists and media workers in Gaza, and contact with individual Palestinian civilians, aid agency staff and medical workers. But Palestinian journalists and media workers are the most at risk in the world, with 197 killed by Israeli attacks in the past two years, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Among those most recently killed were Mariam Dagga, who worked for the Associated Press and Independent Arabia and was killed in an Israeli strike on Nasser hospital in Khan Younis on 25 August, and Reuters journalist Hussam al-Masri, who was killed in the same attack. Israel carried out 25 targeted killings of journalists in that period, the CPJ said, describing them as murders. Israel has consistently denied that it deliberately targeted journalists in its strikes, but its military has also acknowledged killing reporters, including Al Jazeera’s Anas al-Sharif, who the IDF described, without evidence as “the head of a terrorist cell”. Related: International journalists urge Israel to allow reporters into Gaza after ceasefire deal 10.00am BST After more than 700 days in captivity, the 20 hostages believed to be still alive in Gaza are set to be freed in the coming days, after the Israeli government’s ratification of a ceasefire deal with Hamas. They were among the 251 people kidnapped during the 7 October attacks on southern Israel, in which Hamas-led militants killed about 1,200 people. Hamas is expected to release the living hostages within 72 hours, after which Israel will free 250 Palestinians serving long terms in Israeli prisons, and 1,700 others detained in Gaza during the war. A further 26 hostages held are presumed dead and the fate of two is unknown. Hamas has indicated that recovering the bodies of the dead may take longer than releasing those who are alive. Here are details of those who are expected to return home: Related: Who are the 20 hostages believed alive and expected to be freed from Gaza? Updated at 10.02am BST 9.48am BST Scaled-up Gaza aid shipments to begin on Sunday - report The United Nations (UN) was given the green light by Israel to begin delivering scaled-up aid into Gaza starting on Sunday, a UN official said. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss details not yet made public, reports the Associated Press.The aid shipments are meant to address severe malnutrition and famine conditions triggered by Israeli offensives and restrictions on humanitarian help. The international criminal court is seeking the arrest of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister for allegedly using starvation as a method of war. Israeli officials deny the accusations.Accoding to the AP, the aid will include 170,000 metric tons that have already been positioned in neighboring countries such as Jordan and Egypt as humanitarian officials awaited permission from Israeli forces to restart their work. UN officials and Israeli authorities have engaged in a series of discussions in Jerusalem over the last 24 hours about the volume of aid humanitarian organisations can bring in and through which entry points.UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told reporters on Friday that fuel, medical supplies and other critical materials have started flowing through the Kerem Shalom crossing. UN officials want Israel to open more border crossings and provide safe movement for aid workers and civilians who are returning to parts of Gaza that were under heavy fire until only recently. In the last several months, the UN and its partners have been able to deliver only 20% of the aid needed in the Gaza Strip, according to the UN’s under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, Tom Fletcher. Updated at 9.51am BST 9.30am BST The Israeli military confirmed the start of the Gaza ceasefire on Friday, and the remaining 48 hostages, about 20 of them believed to be alive, are to be released by Monday. Palestinians said heavy shelling in parts of Gaza earlier on Friday had mostly stopped after the military’s announcement, reports the Associated Press (AP).Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a televised statement on Friday that the next stages would see Hamas disarm and Gaza demilitarised. Netanyahu said: If this is achieved the easy way – so be it. If not – it will be achieved the hard way. The Israeli military has said it will continue to operate defensively from the roughly 50% of Gaza it still controls after pulling back to agreed-upon lines. 9.15am BST As Abdel Fattah al-Kurdi made the long journey back to Gaza City, he found himself getting lost. Though he left the city just a few weeks ago, he could no longer recognise its streets. The buildings he had grown up in between had collapsed, their contents carpeting the roads in a mixture of torn furniture and broken concrete. Al-Kurdi could only recognise the Netzarim checkpoint marking his entry into north Gaza by the bodies lying at its feet – those who had tried to return home too early, their faces obscured by dust after being cut down by Israeli fire. “The city looks completely different, as if it is no longer the Gaza we once knew. In just a short time, massive destruction has spread everywhere. Almost all of the houses are destroyed, the streets blocked,” said al-Kurdi, a 40-year-old resident of Gaza City, as he returned to his home in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood. Al-Kurdi was one of the thousands of people of Gaza who took advantage of the ceasefire announced on Friday to travel back to their homes in northern Gaza. Videos showed a coastal highway clogged with crowds, many on foot, making their way northwards. For the first time since a previous ceasefire had collapsed in mid-March, fighting had stopped in Gaza. Hamas and Israel had agreed to stop fighting to prepare for the release of 48 Israeli hostages held in Gaza and nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners in an agreement that is meant to lead to a complete end to the two-year war. Like most people of north Gaza, al-Kurdi was filled with anxiety as he walked north. In the days leading up to the ceasefire, Israel had been intensely bombing Gaza City as part of its campaign to occupy the city. Al-Kurdi had no idea if his home was among the lucky few that was still standing. Related: ‘I expect to find a ghost city’: Gaza residents on the long, arduous journey back home 8.55am BST Lebanon condemns overnight Israeli strikes that killed one Lebanese president Joseph Aoun condemned Israel on Saturday for carrying out overnight strikes on civilian facilities that the health ministry said killed at least one person, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports. Aoun said: Once again, southern Lebanon has been the target of a heinous Israeli aggression against civilian installations – without justification or pretext. The seriousness of this latest attack lies in the fact that it comes after the ceasefire agreement in Gaza. The Lebanese health ministry said an Israeli strike on the al-Msayleh area left one person dead and seven others injured. Lebanon’s official National News Agency said Israeli warplanes conducted 10 raids targeting bulldozer and excavator yards. The Israeli army confirmed it conducted strikes in Lebanon. In a statement, it said it had “struck and dismantled Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure in the area of southern Lebanon, where engineering machinery used to re-establish terrorist infrastructure in the area” was located. Israel has repeatedly bombed Lebanon despite a November ceasefire, which followed more than a year of hostilities with the Iran-backed militant group that culminated in two months of open war. 8.43am BST Trump says 'for the most part, there is consensus' on next stages of Gaza ceasefire plan US president Donald Trump has said that “for the most part, there is consensus” on how the next stages of how the Gaza ceasefire plan will work, but admitted that “some of the details … will be worked out”. In comments made on Friday, and reported by various news outlets, Trump spoke about the remaining hostages in Gaza, adding that Hamas were gathering them “now”. He said: “they’re in some pretty rough places”. The US president, who has been praised by Hamas and many in Israel for his role in securing a ceasefire deal, said he believes the agreement will “hold” because “they’re [Hamas and Israel] all tired of the fighting”. Meanwhile, Trump plans to convene world leaders for a summit on Gaza during his visit to Egypt next week, Axios reported. Among those expected to participate are representatives from Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Indonesia. According to a US official, Benjamin Netanyahu will not be present. Trump confirmed that he would meet a “lot of leaders” in Cairo on Monday to discuss the future of Gaza and it has been reported that he will also travel to Israel, where he will adress the Knesset. More on this story in a moment, but first here are some other key developments: Tens of thousands of Palestinians headed back to the heavily destroyed northern Gaza Strip on Friday as a US-brokered ceasefire came into effect in a deal that raised hopes for ending the Israel-Hamas war. The remaining 48 hostages, about 20 of them believed to be alive, are to be released by Monday. Questions remain over who will govern Gaza as Israeli troops gradually pull back and whether Hamas will disarm, as called for in Trump’s ceasefire plan. Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who unilaterally ended a ceasefire in March, hinted that Israel might renew its offensive if Hamas does not give up its weapons. The United Nations was given the green light by Israel to begin delivering scaled-up aid into Gaza starting on Sunday, a UN official said. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss details not yet made public, reports the Associated Press. The aid will include 170,000 metric tons that have already been positioned in neighboring countries such as Jordan and Egypt as humanitarian officials awaited permission from Israeli forces to restart their work. UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told reporters on Friday that fuel, medical supplies and other critical materials have started flowing through the Kerem Shalom crossing. UN officials want Israel to open more border crossings and provide safe movement for aid workers and civilians who are returning to parts of Gaza that were under heavy fire until only recently. Lebanese President Joseph Aoun condemned Israel on Saturday for carrying out overnight strikes on civilian facilities that the health ministry said killed at least one person. “Once again, southern Lebanon has been the target of a heinous Israeli aggression against civilian installations – without justification or pretext,” Aoun said. Israel shared a list of the Palestinian detainees that it plans to release as part of the ceasefire agreement made with Hamas. Of the 250 Palestinian prisoners serving long sentences for serious security offences, 15 will be released in East Jerusalem, 100 to the West Bank, and 135 will be deported. Initially, when Hamas officials submitted a list of proposed prisoners to be released to mediators in Egypt, they called for the release of high-profile Palestinian political figures such as Marwan Barghouti. But Netanyahu’s office confirmed it refuses to release Barghouti. Updated at 4.15pm BST