JERUSALEM/CAIRO: Thousands of displaced Palestinians streamed back towards their abandoned homes on Friday after a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas went into effect and Israeli troops began pulling back from parts of Gaza.
A huge column of displaced Gazans filed north through the dust and rubble towards Gaza City, the enclave’s biggest urban area, which had been under attack just days ago in one of Israel’s biggest offensives of the war.
“Thank God my house is still standing,” said Ismail Zayda, 40, in the Sheikh Radwan district of Gaza City. “But the place is destroyed, my neighbours’ houses are destroyed, entire districts have gone.”
The Israeli military said the ceasefire agreement had been activated at noon local time (0900 GMT). Israel’s government ratified the ceasefire with Hamas in the early hours of Friday, clearing the way to partially pull back troops and fully suspend hostilities in Gaza within 24 hours.
Hamas is expected to release the 20 living Israeli hostages within 72 hours, after which Israel will release 250 Palestinians serving long terms in Israeli prisons, and 1,700 others detained in Gaza during the war.
US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff said the Israeli military had completed the first phase of a withdrawal in Gaza and the hostage release period had started.
Once the agreement is operating, trucks carrying food and medical aid will surge into Gaza to help civilians, hundreds of thousands of whom have been sheltering in tents after Israeli forces destroyed their homes and razed entire cities.
The first phase of US President Donald Trump’s initiative to end the two-year war in Gaza calls for Israeli forces to withdraw from some of Gaza’s major urban areas, though they will still control roughly half of the enclave’s territory.
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