According to The New York Post, thousands of displaced Palestinians streamed back toward their abandoned homes on Friday after a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect and Israeli troops began pulling back from parts of Gaza.
A massive column of Gazans moved north through dust and debris toward Gaza City, the enclave’s largest urban center, which had endured heavy bombardment just days earlier in one of Israel’s most intense 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 neighbors’ houses are destroyed, entire districts have gone.”
The Israeli military confirmed that the ceasefire began at noon local time (0900 GMT). Israel’s government ratified the deal with Hamas early Friday, paving the way to partially withdraw troops and fully suspend hostilities in Gaza within 24 hours.
Under the agreement, Hamas is expected to release 20 living Israeli hostages within 72 hours. In exchange, Israel will free 250 Palestinians serving long sentences in Israeli prisons, along with 1,700 others detained in Gaza during the war.
U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff said Israeli forces had completed the first phase of their withdrawal and that the hostage release period was underway.
Once the agreement is in full effect, aid convoys carrying food and medical supplies are expected to flood into Gaza — a critical lifeline for hundreds of thousands of civilians who have been living in tents after losing their homes to the conflict
According to The Post, “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 demilitarized 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.”
More over at The New York Post:
Israeli forces start pulling back from parts of Gaza under cease-fire deal https://t.co/29itWZ6qSl pic.twitter.com/mDbdI5iKKB
— New York Post (@nypost) October 10, 2025
