Thousands of displaced Palestinians headed toward their abandoned homes yesterday after a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas came into effect and Israeli troops began withdrawing from parts of Gaza.
A huge column of displaced Gazans was moving north through the dust, toward Gaza City - the largest urban area in the enclave - which had just days earlier come under attack in one of the biggest Israeli offensives of the war.
Despite the celebration that followed news of the ceasefire, many Palestinians are painfully aware that little remains of the life they knew before the war.
"Okay, it's over - so what now? There's no house I can go back to," Balqis, a mother of five from Gaza City who has been taking shelter in Deir al-Bali, in central Gaza, told Reuters in recent weeks.
"They destroyed everything. Tens of thousands of people are dead, the Gaza Strip is in ruins, and they have made a ceasefire. Should I be happy? No, I'm not," she said.
Mustafa Ibrahim, an activist and human rights fighter from Gaza City, who also took refuge in Deir al-Bali - one of the few areas in the enclave that Israeli forces have not overrun and razed to the ground - feels the same way.
“The laughter has disappeared and the tears have dried up,” he said. “The people of Gaza are lost, as if they were the living dead searching for a distant future.”
Some former residents of Gaza City began returning even before the ceasefire took effect, with some reaching as far as the northwestern suburb of Sheikh Radwan.
Among them was Ismail Zajda, a 40-year-old father of three, who went to check on his house on Friday morning and was stunned to find it still intact - although surrounded by a "sea of rubble".
“Thank God, my house is still standing,” Zayda said in a voicemail to Reuters. “But the whole area has been destroyed, my neighbors’ houses have been demolished - entire neighborhoods have disappeared.”
The Israeli military said the ceasefire agreement came into effect at noon local time yesterday. The Israeli government approved the Gaza ceasefire agreement and hostage release early yesterday morning, marking the first phase of a deal aimed at ending the two-year war.
The next steps in Trump's 20-point plan have not yet been agreed upon. Among them are questions about who will govern the devastated Gaza Strip after the fighting ends and the ultimate fate of Hamas, which has so far rejected Israeli demands to disarm.
The agreement covers only the initial phase, including the handover of hostages held in Gaza in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, as well as a partial withdrawal of Israeli troops from positions in the enclave. Many risks remain, as negotiators have yet to resolve some of the most sensitive issues on which previous initiatives have failed.
Hamas is expected to release 20 live Israeli hostages within 72 hours, after which Israel will release 250 Palestinians serving long sentences in Israeli prisons, as well as another 1,700 people arrested in Gaza during the war.
Once the agreement is implemented, trucks carrying food and medical aid will rush into Gaza to help civilians, including hundreds of thousands who have taken shelter in tents after Israeli forces destroyed their homes and razed entire towns to the ground.
The first phase of US President Donald Trump's initiative to end the two-year war in Gaza envisages the withdrawal of Israeli forces from some major urban areas of Gaza, although they will still control about half of the enclave's territory.
Israeli military spokesman Brigadier General Efi Defrin yesterday called on Gaza residents to avoid entering areas under Israeli military control.
"I hereby call on the residents of Gaza not to enter the zones under IDF control. Respect the agreement and take care of your safety," he said yesterday, adding that "Hamas is not the same as it was two years ago" and "it has been defeated everywhere we have fought it."
In a televised address, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli forces would remain in Gaza to ensure the territory is demilitarized and Hamas is disarmed in the next stages of Trump's plan: "If it is achieved the easy way, that will be good; if not, we will achieve it the hard way."
The war has deepened Israel's international isolation and rocked the Middle East, spilling over into a regional conflict that has drawn in Iran, Yemen and Lebanon. It has also tested US-Israeli relations, with Trump appearing to lose patience with Netanyahu and pressuring him to reach a deal.
Both Israelis and Palestinians celebrated after the announcement of the agreement - the biggest step yet towards ending a two-year war that has killed more than 67.000 Palestinians and towards the return of hostages captured by Hamas in deadly attacks that sparked the conflict.
Twenty Israeli hostages are believed to be still alive, while 26 are presumed dead and the fate of two others is unknown. Hamas has indicated that recovering the bodies of those killed could take longer than freeing those still alive.
Exiled Hamas leader Khalil al-Haya said he had received assurances from the US and other mediators that the war was over.
The agreement, if fully implemented, would bring the two sides closer together than any previous attempt to stop the war. However, much could still go wrong, Reuters points out. The parties have not yet announced a list of Palestinian prisoners who will be released in exchange for Israeli hostages. Hamas is demanding the release of some of the most prominent Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
The next steps in Trump's 20-point plan have not yet been agreed upon. Among them are questions about who will govern the devastated Gaza Strip after the fighting ends and the ultimate fate of Hamas, which has so far rejected Israeli demands to disarm.
The Hamas-controlled Interior Ministry said yesterday it would deploy security forces in areas from which the Israeli military had withdrawn. It was not immediately clear whether fighters would return to the streets in larger numbers, as during previous ceasefires - a move that would surely be seen as a provocation by Israel.
Trump said he would travel to the region on Sunday, possibly to attend a signing ceremony in Egypt. Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana invited him to address the Israeli parliament.
The United States is sending 200 troops to Israel to monitor the implementation of a ceasefire agreement, US officials announced on Thursday.
Officials said that US Central Command will establish a civil-military coordination center in Israel that will provide security and humanitarian support.
US troops will join soldiers from countries in the region, including Egypt, Qatar, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, to monitor the implementation of the agreement. A US official said there are no plans for US troops to enter Gaza.
The first units of the planned 200 soldiers have already begun arriving in Israel, with the rest set to join over the weekend to begin setting up the new coordination center. The soldiers are mainly planners and experts in logistics, security and other support areas.
The center's goal will be to establish a hub for military, political and humanitarian experts who will help coordinate everything from humanitarian aid and security support to the implementation of ceasefire agreements.
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