By Alexander Cornwell and Nidal al-Mughrabi
JERUSALEM/CAIRO (Reuters) -Israeli troops began pulling back from some parts of Gaza on Friday under a ceasefire deal with Hamas, and some residents returned to shattered neighbourhoods, unsure over their safety after two years of warfare.
“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.” “Is it over? They said it is. Why does no one come out and tell us whether there is a ceasefire and we can stop being afraid?”
Israel’s government ratified the ceasefire with Hamas in the early hours of Friday, clearing the way to pull back troops and fully suspend hostilities in Gaza within 24 hours. Israeli hostages held there are to be be freed within 72 hours after that, in return for Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.
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.
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.
ISRAELI FORCES PULL OUT OF POSITIONS IN CENTRE, SOUTH
“The government has just now approved the framework for the release of all of the hostages – the living and the deceased,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s English-language X account said.
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, 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, where hundreds of people had gathered hoping to return to the enclave’s main urban centre which has been under Israeli assault for the past month. Gunfire nearby made many reluctant to move, and only a few were attempting to cross on foot, residents said. Rescue workers in Gaza City began missions in areas they had been unable to reach before. Medics said at least 10 bodies were recovered from previous strikes.
“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 HAS 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 attacks 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.
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, as well as hundreds of people detained during Israel’s assault.
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 the fighting ends, and the ultimate fate of Hamas, which has so far rejected Israel’s demands it disarm.
Netanyahu also faces scepticism from within his governing coalition, as many have long opposed any deal with Hamas.
Trump said he would head to the region on Sunday, possibly to attend a signing ceremony in Egypt. Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana invited him to address the Israeli parliament.
The deal received support from Arab and Western countries and was widely portrayed as a major diplomatic achievement for Trump.
The United States will deploy 200 troops as part of a joint task force for Gaza stability, with no Americans on the ground in the Palestinian enclave, two senior U.S. officials said on Thursday.
The officials, speaking to reporters on condition of anonymity, said the 200 would be a core part of a task force that would include Egyptians, Qataris, Turks and probably Emiratis.
More than 67,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s assault on Gaza, launched after Hamas-led militants stormed through Israeli towns and a music festival on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and capturing 251 hostages.
(Reporting by Maayan Lubell in Jersualem and Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo; Additional reporting by Mahmoud Issa; Writing by Michael GeorgyEditing by Peter Graff)
