Thousands of exhausted Palestinians were returning to their ruined homes in Gaza on Saturday, a day after a ceasefire between Israel and the militant Hamas group took effect.
The Reuters news agency described a huge group of people traveling on foot north along a coastal road overlooking sandy beaches towards Gaza City, the enclave’s largest urban area.
By Friday afternoon, the city was the target of one of Israel’s largest attacks of the war.
Gaza civil defense spokesman Mahmoud Bassal said about 200,000 Palestinians have returned to northern Gaza since the ceasefire took effect.
Gaza residents return to the rubble
“Thank God my house is still standing,” said Ismail Zaida in Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan district. “But the place has been destroyed, my neighbors’ houses have been destroyed, entire districts have been destroyed.”
Another Palestinian, Mahdi Sakala, said his family had decided to move north towards Gaza City as soon as they heard news of the ceasefire.
“There are no houses there – they have been destroyed,” he said. “But we are happy to return to where our homes were, even above the debris. This is also a great joy. For two years, we have been suffering, displaced from one place to another.”
In southern Khan Yunis, once the region’s second-largest city, hundreds of Palestinians returning to where their homes once stood have found broken buildings, debris and destruction after Israeli troops withdrew from parts of the city.
“There was nothing left. There were just some clothes, pieces of wood and utensils,” displaced resident Fatma Radwan told The Associated Press. He said that people are still trying to take out the bodies from under the debris.
Another Khan Yunis resident, Ahmed al-Brim, said he was only able to recover wood from the ruins of his home, which he would use as firewood for cooking.
“We went to our area. It was destroyed. We don’t know where we will go after that,” he said. “We didn’t find furniture, clothes or anything, not even winter clothes. Nothing was left.”
Israel withdrew its soldiers
Palestinians said early Friday heavy shelling in parts of Gaza had stopped after Israeli forces announced a ceasefire.
Gaza’s Civil Defense Agency confirmed that Israeli troops and armored vehicles were withdrawing from forward positions in both Gaza City and Khan Yunis.
But Israel warned Palestinians to stay away from its forces while they are “adjusting the operational situation.”
The Hamas-run Interior Ministry said it was sending security forces to areas from which Israeli forces had withdrawn.
Aid distribution will be increased
Meanwhile, a UN official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the UN has been given the green light by Israel to launch increased assistance to Gaza from Sunday.
The aid will include 170,000 metric tons that has already been deployed to neighboring countries such as Jordan and Egypt.
This relief will help address the situation of severe malnutrition and famine, which was worsened by Israeli restrictions on aid access during the war.
Over the past few months, the UN and its partners have been able to deliver only 20% of the aid needed in Gaza, according to UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher.
Many questions remain regarding the peace plan
Despite celebrations in Israel and Gaza over the implementation of the first phase of US President Donald Trump’s 20-point peace plan, several issues remain unresolved, including the disarmament of Hamas and a proposed transitional authority for Gaza under Trump’s leadership, in which former British Prime Minister Tony Blair would play a leading role.
The plan calls for Israel to maintain an open military presence inside the Palestinian territory along its border with Israel.
An international force, consisting largely of troops from Arab and Muslim countries, will be responsible for security inside Gaza.
However, Hamas issued a statement late Friday rejecting any “foreign tutelage”, saying the governance of Gaza was entirely an internal Palestinian matter.
Under the ceasefire agreement, Hamas will hand over the remaining 48 hostages, 20 of whom are believed to survive. He will be released in a few days.
The two-year Gaza blockade began with Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, which killed about 1,200 people and took 251 hostages.
Thousands of Palestinians have been killed in the fighting and about 90% of Gaza’s population of approximately 2 million has been displaced at various times.
Edited by Shawn Sinico