By Alexander Cornwell and Nidal al-Mughrabi
JERUSALEM/CAIRO (Reuters) -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.”
HOSTAGES TO BE RELEASED WITHIN 72-HOUR PERIOD
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.
U.S. 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 U.S. 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, Prime Minister 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.”
Israeli military spokesperson Brigadier General Effie Defrin urged residents of Gaza to avoid entering areas under Israeli military control. “Keep to the agreement and ensure your safety,” he said on Friday.
ISRAELI FORCES PULL OUT OF POSITIONS IN CENTRE, SOUTH
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, according to residents in contact with Reuters.
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.”
HAMAS GAZA LEADER SAYS HE RECEIVED GUARANTEES WAR IS OVER
The war has deepened Israel’s international isolation and upended the Middle East, spreading into a regional conflict that drew in Iran, Yemen and Lebanon. It also tested the U.S.-Israeli relationship, with Trump seeming to lose patience with Netanyahu and pressuring him to reach a deal.
Israelis and Palestinians alike rejoiced after the deal was announced, the biggest step yet to end two years of war in which over 67,000 Palestinians have been killed, and return the last hostages seized by Hamas in the deadly attack that provoked it.
The exiled Gaza chief of Hamas, Khalil Al-Hayya, said he had received guarantees from the United States and other mediators that the war was over.
The Hamas-led attack on Israeli communities and a music festival on October 7, 2023, killed 1,200 people and capturing 251 hostages.
Twenty Israeli hostages are still believed to be alive in Gaza, while 26 are presumed dead and the fate of two is unknown. Hamas has indicated that recovering the bodies of the dead may take longer than releasing those who are alive.
HURDLES REMAIN
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.
Further steps in Trump’s 20-point plan have yet to be agreed. Those include how the demolished Gaza Strip is to be ruled when fighting ends, and the ultimate fate of Hamas, which has rejected Israel’s demands it disarm.
The Hamas-run interior ministry said it would deploy security forces in areas where the Israeli army withdrew. It was not clear whether armed militants would return to the streets in significant numbers, a move Israel would see as a provocation.
Trump said he would head to the region on Sunday, possibly to attend a signing ceremony in Egypt, and Israeli police said they were preparing for a visit by him on Monday. Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana invited him to address Israel’s parliament.
(Reporting by Maayan Lubell in Jersualem and Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo; Additional reporting by Ahmed Eleimam, Jana Chouceir and Tala Ramadan in Dubai, Mahmoud Issa; writing by Michael Georgy; editing by Peter Graff and Mark Heinrich)
