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 massive column of displaced Gazans filed north through the dust 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 area in 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 (8pm AEDT).
Palestinians walk along a street amid the rubble of destroyed buildings in Gaza City on Friday. Source: EPA / Mohammed Saber
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, as well as 1,700 others detained in Gaza during the war.
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 to dust.
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, 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," he said.
Israeli forces pull out of Gaza positions
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 Nusseirat camp in the centre of the enclave, some Israeli soldiers dismantled their position and headed east towards the Israeli border, but 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," Mahdi Saqla, 40, said.
"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."
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.
This is a developing story and this article will be updated.
