Israel pulls back, Gazans return to gutted homes

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.

The Israeli military said the ceasefire agreement had been activated. The Israel 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 West Asia 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.

In a televised address, PM Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli forces would stay in Gaza to ensure the territory was demilitarised and Hamas disarmed in future stages of Trump’s plan: “If this is achieved the easy way then that will be good and if not then it will be achieved the hard way.”

In Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, some Israeli troops pulled back from the eastern area near the border, but tank shelling was heard, said residents.

In Nusseirat camp in the centre of the enclave, some Israeli soldiers dismantled their position and headed east towards the Israeli border, though other troops remained in the area after gunfire was heard in the early hours of Friday.

Israeli forces pulled out from the road along the Mediterranean coast into Gaza City.

"As soon as we heard the news of the truce and ceasefire, we were very happy and got ready to go back to Gaza City, to our homes. Of course there are no homes, they’ve been destroyed,” said Mahdi Saqla, 40.

“But we are happy just to return to where our homes were, even over the rubble. That too is a great joy. For two years we've been suffering, displaced from place to place,” he said.

The accord, if fully implemented, would bring the two sides closer than any previous effort to halt the war.

Much could still go wrong. The sides have yet to publish the list of Palestinian prisoners to be released in exchange for Israeli hostages. Hamas is seeking freedom for some of the most prominent Palestinian convicts held in Israeli jails.