Palestinians return to ruins and US troops land in Israel as ceasefire holds

Tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians returned to their Gaza neighbourhoods on Saturday, weaving through dust-shrouded streets as bulldozers clawed through the wreckage of two years of war and a ceasefire held in its second day.

"Gaza is completely destroyed. I have no idea where we should live or where to go,” said Mahmoud Al Shandoghli as he walked through Gaza City.

A boy climbed a shattered building to raise the Palestinian flag.

About 200 US troops arrived in Israel to monitor the ceasefire with Hamas. They will set up a center to facilitate the flow of humanitarian aid as well as logistical and security assistance.

The head of the US military’s Central Command said he visited Gaza on Saturday to prepare it.

"This great effort will be achieved with no US boots on the ground in Gaza,” Adm. Brad Cooper said in a statement.

An Egyptian official said US envoy Steve Witkoff met senior US and Israeli military officials in Gaza on Saturday and that Witkoff stressed the implementation of the ceasefire deal's first phase.

Humanitarian aid

Aid groups urged Israel to reopen more crossings to allow aid into Gaza.

A UN official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss details not yet public, said Israel has approved expanded aid deliveries, starting Sunday.

The World Food Programme (WFP) said it was ready to restore 145 food distribution points across the famine-stricken territory, once Israel allows for expanded deliveries.

Before Israel sealed off Gaza in March, UN agencies provided food at 400 distribution points.

Though the timeline and how the food will enter Gaza remain unclear, the distribution points will allow Palestinians to access food at more locations than they could through the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which had operated four locations since taking over distribution in late May.

COGAT, the Israeli military body in charge of humanitarian aid, said more than 500 trucks entered Gaza on Friday, although many crossings remain closed.

Some 170,000 metric tonnes of food aid have been positioned in neighbouring countries awaiting permission from Israel to restart deliveries.

Hostages-Prisoners release

Israel’s military has said the 48 hostages still in Gaza would be freed on Monday.

The government believes around 20 remain alive. They were among about 250 hostages taken in Hamas’ Oct.7, 2023, attack on Israel.

"It’s been a few nights that we can’t sleep. We want them back and we feel that everything is just hanging on a thread,” Maayan Eliasi, a Tel Aviv resident, said at a gathering at the city’s Hostages Square.

Israel is to free some 250 Palestinians serving prison sentences, as well as around 1,700 people seized from Gaza the past two years and held without charge.

The Israel Prison Service said on Saturday that prisoners have been transferred to deportation facilities at Ofer and Ktzi’ot prisons, "awaiting instructions from the political echelon.”

Hamas disarming

Questions remain on who will govern Gaza after Israeli troops gradually pull back and whether Hamas will disarm, as called for in the ceasefire agreement.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who unilaterally ended the previous ceasefire in March, has suggested Israel could resume its offensive if Hamas fails to disarm.

"If it’s achieved the easy way, so be it. If not, it will be achieved the hard way,” Netanyahu said Friday, pledging that the next stage would bring Hamas’ disarmament.

Scale of Gaza destruction

The scale of Gaza's destruction will become clearer if the truce holds.

More than three out of every four buildings have been destroyed, the UN said in September - a volume of debris equivalent to 25 Eiffel Towers, much of it likely toxic.

A February assessment by the European Union and World Bank estimated $49 billion in damage, including $16 billion to housing and $6.3 billion to the health sector.

The death toll is expected to rise as more bodies that couldn't be retrieved during Israel's offensive are found.

A manager at northern Gaza’s Shifa Hospital told The Associated Press that 45 bodies pulled from the rubble in Gaza City had arrived over the past 24 hours.

The manager, speaking on condition of anonymity for safety reasons, said the bodies had been missing for several days to two weeks.

US President Donald Trump’s initial 20-point plan calls for Israel to maintain an open-ended military presence inside Gaza, along its border with Israel.

An international force, comprised largely of troops from Arab and Muslim countries, would be responsible for security inside Gaza, though the timeline is unclear.

The Israeli military has said it will continue to operate defensively from the roughly 50% of Gaza it still controls after pulling back to agreed-upon lines.

Associated Press