Palestinians displaced to southern Gaza begin journey home as ceasefire comes into effect

Tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians in Gaza have begun to return to the ruins of their homes after the ceasefire rapidly negotiated in recent days between Hamas and Israel came into effect at noon local time on Friday – the first relief from relentless violence that inhabitants of the devastated territory have had since March. Israeli troops withdrew to new agreed-upon positions during Friday morning and Hamas is expected to release the 20 living Israeli hostages it is holding early next week, after which Israel will free 250 Palestinians serving long-term sentences in Israeli prisons, as well as 1,700 others detained during the war. The hostages for prisoners deal, approved by the Israeli cabinet on Thursday night, is the first phase of a US-drafted “peace proposal” announced by Donald Trump last week that has raised hopes of a durable end to the two-year conflict, though all involved recognise the difficulties ahead. The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, claimed credit for the hostage release, saying in an address on Friday that the “security of Israel” had dictated his actions in Gaza. “I believed that if we applied heavy military pressure, combined with heavy diplomatic pressure, we would absolutely be able to return all of our hostages,” said Netanyahu, who thanked Trump for his support. The US president is expected to visit Israel on Monday to address the Knesset in Jerusalem. Netanyahu also threatened a return to violence. “Hamas agreed to the deal only when it felt the sword resting on its neck and it is still on its neck … Hamas will be disarmed and Gaza will be demilitarised … If this is achieved the easy way, so much the better. And if not, it will be achieved the hard way,” he said. Officials from Hamas appeared equally sceptical. Basel Naim, a senior leader of the militant group, said in an interview with Sky News on Friday that it would not disarm, contrary to the Trump plan. “Our weapons are going to be handed over only to the hands of a Palestinian state, and our fighters can be integrated into the Palestinian national army,” Naim said. In a joint statement issued later on Friday evening, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine rejected any “foreign guardianship” over Gaza, stressing that its governance was a purely internal Palestinian matter. But they expressed their readiness to benefit from Arab and international participation in the reconstruction of the territory. Officials have said Israeli forces will remain in control of 53% of Gaza in the initial withdrawal phase before the hostages are released, and Israeli bombing in Gaza had intensified on Friday morning up until the ceasefire began. However, Israeli troops were seen pulling back from areas such as the eastern part of Khan Younis, southern Gaza, and the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza. With the announcement that a ceasefire had begun, thousands of Palestinians began heading north towards Gaza City, the territory’s biggest urban area, mostly on foot. Nearly half a million Palestinians living in north Gaza were displaced by Israel’s military advance into Gaza City, and many were eager to return to their homes. Footage showed huge crowds on the coastal road, which had been closed to returnees just days prior. “On the road, I saw someone returning. When he saw his house still standing from a distance, he began to run and shout with joy,” Asmaa Zuheir said. “At that moment, I felt pain because I was returning to my area knowing my house was already completely destroyed.” In the south of Gaza, thousands left the crowded coastal strip of al-Mawasi to travel inland to the partly ruined city of Khan Younis. Ahmed al-Brim pushed a bicycle loaded with wood through row after row of buildings crumpled by bombardment and streets strewn with rubble. “We went to our area – it was exterminated,” he said. “We don’t know where we will go after that.“ Another Khan Younis resident, Muhannad al-Shawaf, said it used to take him three minutes to reach a nearby street from his house. Now, it took over an hour as he picked his way through piles of debris. “The destruction is huge and indescribable – indescribable,” he said. “It is almost all in ruins and not suitable for living in.” The conflict has destroyed or damaged more than 90% of homes in Gaza and almost all infrastructure. Almost everyone in the territory has been displaced many times. Malnutrition is rife across all of Gaza, and there is famine in parts, according to UN-backed food experts. The ceasefire is meant to be accompanied by a surge in humanitarian and medical aid into Gaza through all five crossings from Israel, though it is unclear how and when this will happen. Israeli army radio said Israel would allow 600 aid trucks into Gaza each day. Aid agencies say such quantities are grossly insufficient. Leading international agencies, including the UN Palestinian refugee relief agency, Unrwa, said they had yet to receive details on what role they would be able to play during the ceasefire. Unrwa, which has been banned from operating in Israel, urged Israeli authorities to allow it to take 6,000 trucks’ worth of aid into Gaza, including enough food to feed the population for three months, from Jordan and Egypt. “We’ve not had any progress to move those supplies into Gaza … and this is absolutely critical in controlling the spread of famine,” Juliette Touma, the spokesperson for Unrwa, said. Care International said on Friday it still had not received clearance for its supplies to enter. “We still need clarity on how we’ll be able to get supplies into Gaza that have been stuck outside for months,” said Jolien Veldwijk, Care’s Palestine director. More than 67,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed during Israel’s offensive, and the toll is expected to rise. Medical workers announced that they would use the ceasefire period to start recovering bodies trapped under rubble. Thousands of bodies are though to lie under the debris of ruined buildings, as fighting made excavation and recovery difficult. Israel launched the war in response to a Hamas-led attack on 7 October 2023 that killed about 1,200 people and took 251 hostage. Though there is much relief in Israel and in Gaza at the ceasefire, there is anxiety too. Trump’s ambitious 20-point proposal calls for the disarmament of Hamas, further Israeli withdrawals, the creation of an international stabilisation force and a new technocratic Palestinian administration which would answer to Trump. Little of this has been discussed in detail during the frantic negotiations in recent days, and securing agreement from all parties on the thornier issues will be extremely difficult. Already disagreements have emerged over the makeup of the body that will take power from Hamas in Gaza. The US has said Trump and the former UK prime minister Tony Blair will lead the body, while Hamas has called for a Palestinian led-entity to oversee administration of the strip. Naim rejected the involvement of Blair in particular. Bringing the war in Gaza to a close would mark the biggest foreign policy achievement so far for Trump, who took office in January promising to quickly end the conflict there and in Ukraine, only to be confronted with obstacles and complexities he had apparently not foreseen. The war has evolved into a regional conflict, drawing in countries such as Iran, Yemen and Lebanon, and reshaping the Middle East.