Hundreds of thousands of destitute Palestinians are moving north through the Gaza Strip to return to homes in Gaza City, only to find them in ruins after two years of war / © AFP
As a fragile ceasefire takes hold in Gaza, tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians are returning to a city reduced to rubble, confronting scenes of destruction that speak to the scale of two years of war.
Hundreds of thousands of war-weary Palestinians returned to a devastated Gaza City on Saturday, with families picking their way through rubble-strewn streets only to find many of their homes in ruins.
On the second day of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, the scale of the recovery operation was daunting, even as negotiations and preparations for a prisoner swap continued.
US President Donald Trump is due in the Middle East in the next two days to celebrate the promised release of Israeli hostages -- still held in Gaza two years after Hamas's October 7 attack -- and to promote the next phase of his plan.
But in an early sign that much political wrangling remains, a senior Hamas official told AFP that it was "out of the question" that the Palestinian Islamist movement would disarm, as required by the plan, even if it steps aside from Gaza's government.
- 'Stood and cried' -
A part of Trump's deal was completed on Friday when Israel agreed a ceasefire and withdrew its forces from parts of Gaza, allowing displaced families to begin trekking back to their homes, many of them wrecked by Israeli bombardments.
Displaced Palestinians make their way to Gaza City on the second day of a ceasefire in the devastated territory / © AFP
According to Gaza's civil defence agency, a rescue service operating under Hamas authority, more than 500,000 people had returned to Gaza City by Saturday evening.
"We walked for hours, and every step was filled with fear and anxiety for my home," Raja Salmi, 52, told AFP.
When she reached the Al-Rimal neighbourhood, she found her house utterly destroyed.
"I stood before it and cried. All those memories are now just dust," she said.
Aerial footage of the city filmed by AFP showed whole city blocks reduced to a twisted mess of concrete and steel reinforcing wire, the walls and windows of five-storey apartment blocks ripped off and left choking the roadsides as disconsolate residents returned.
The United Nations humanitarian office says Israel has allowed agencies to start transporting 170,000 tonnes of aid into Gaza if the ceasefire holds.
The top US officer in the Middle East, CENTCOM commander Admiral Brad Cooper, visited Gaza on Saturday to discuss setting up what he described on social media as a "civil-military coordination center" which will "support conflict stabilisation."
People look at portraits of the captives being held in Gaza at the so-called "Hostages Square" in Tel Aviv / © AFP
The US military will coordinate a multinational taskforce which will deploy in Gaza and is likely to include troops from Egypt, Qatar, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates -- but no American boots on the ground inside the territory itself.
Under the ceasefire deal pushed by Trump, Hamas has until noon on Monday to hand over 47 remaining Israeli hostages -- living and dead -- from the 251 abducted during its October 7 attack on Israel two years ago.
The remains of one more hostage, held in Gaza since 2014, are also expected to be returned.
In exchange, Israel will release 250 prisoners, including some of those serving life sentences for deadly anti-Israeli attacks, and 1,700 Gazans detained by the military since the war broke out.
The Israeli prison service said Saturday it had moved the 250 national security detainees to the prisons of Ofer, in the occupied West Bank, and Ketziot in southern Israel's Negev desert, ahead of the handover.
- 'Ghost town' -
Many parts of the Trump proposal still have not been agreed, including its plans for post-war governance, and its insistence that Hamas disarm.
Many returning Palestinians were shocked at the level of destruction they encountered / © AFP
At Al-Rantisi hospital in Gaza City, a facility for children and cancer patients, AFP footage showed wards reduced to heaps of overturned metal beds, gaping ceilings and scattered medical equipment.
"I don't know what to say. The images speak louder than any words: destruction, destruction, and more destruction," said Saher Abu Al-Atta, a resident who had returned to the city.
Men, women and children navigated streets filled with rubble, searching for homes amid collapsed concrete slabs, destroyed vehicles and debris.
While some returned in vehicles, most walked, carrying belongings in bags strapped to their shoulders.
Sami Musa, 28, returned alone to check on his family's house.
"Thank God... I found that our home is still standing, though it has suffered some damage that we can repair," Musa told AFP.
Israeli tanks could be seen lined up on Saturday in southern Israel, on the border with Gaza / © AFP
Nonetheless, the destruction in Gaza City left him shocked but determined to rebuild.
"It felt like a ghost town, not Gaza," Musa said. "The smell of death still lingers in the air."
Israel's campaign in Gaza has killed at least 67,682 people, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, figures the United Nations considers credible.
The data does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but indicates that more than half of the dead are women and children.
The war was sparked by Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
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