Tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians began returning to their abandoned and destroyed homes after the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas came into effect and Israeli forces started withdrawing from some areas of the Gaza Strip under the war-ending agreement. Large crowds of displaced people moved northward toward Gaza City, the largest urban area in the Strip, which was targeted in a wide-scale attack during one of the fiercest Israeli military operations of the war.

Returnees from the south made their way through Khan Younis, the second largest city in Gaza heavily damaged by Israeli forces, with most of them exhausted from repeated displacement and fatigue.

Israeli occupation forces opened roads leading to the cities, allowing the first large flow of Palestinians returning from temporary camps to their homes they had left.

Since the moment the Israeli army announced the ceasefire’s implementation in Gaza, thousands of displaced people have streamed back from the south to the north to inspect what remains of their homes turned to rubble. Some even walked along Al-Rashid Street, a journey they had become accustomed to over the past two years. Others returned to the ruins of their homes in Khan Younis in the south.

Many displaced expressed joy at the return and the end of the war despite the widespread destruction documented by satellites, photos, and videos in Khan Younis and Rafah in the south, Gaza City, and Jabalia in the north. Aerial images revealed the massive destruction in Khan Younis and other northern areas as well.

Meanwhile, the spokesperson for Gaza’s Civil Defense, Mahmoud Basal, announced on Friday evening that approximately 200,000 people have returned to the north.

Palestinian medical sources reported that medical teams recovered the bodies of 155 victims over the past 24 hours, who were killed in Gaza City during the previous weeks before the Israeli forces withdrew from some areas. A medical source explained that ambulances had previously struggled to transport the bodies due to the dangerous field conditions and ongoing shelling.

With the ceasefire announcement, the Foreign Press Association in Jerusalem, which includes correspondents from major foreign media outlets, called on Israeli authorities to allow independent access to Gaza, stressing that there is no longer any justification to block entry to the Strip, especially since Israel had imposed restrictions on foreign reporters’ access to Gaza for two years.