Half a million return home as Gaza ceasefire holds

• Displaced Palestinians came back to ruins as prisoner exchange begins
• High-level diplomatic summit, led by the US and Egypt, planned to oversee the deal’s implementation

GAZA CITY: More than half a million displaced Palestinians have streamed back into the ruins of Gaza City since Friday’s ceasefire took hold, confronting a landscape of devastation that has transformed entire neighbourhoods into fields of rubble.

Long columns of residents travelled north along a coastal road, with many stunned by the destruction, after Israel agreed to the truce on Friday and pulled troops from several areas of the territory.

Raja Salmi was amongst those making the arduous journey home, walking for hours through the debris-strewn streets to reach what remained of her house in the once-affluent al-Rimal neighbourhood.

“I stood before it and cried,” she said, surveying the pile of rubble where her home once stood. “All those memories are now just dust.”

The mass return, confirmed by Gaza’s civil defence agency, came as Israel began preparations to release Palestinian prisoners under the terms of the US-brokered agreement. The Israeli prison service said staff had “operated throughout the night” to transfer detainees to facilities ahead of their release.

The complex prisoner exchange — 47 Israeli prisoners for 250 Palestinian prisoners and 1,700 Gazans detained during the conflict represents the most significant diplomatic breakthrough since the war began.

However, the durability of the truce remains uncertain, as in an interview with AFP in Qatar, Hossam Badran, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, warned: “The second phase of the Trump plan, as it is clear from the points themselves, contains many complexities and difficulties.”

Hamas, he said, would not attend the formal signing of the Gaza peace deal in Egypt, where international leaders are due to gather Monday to discuss implementing the first phase of the ceasefire.

Hamas is resisting calls to disarm. An official from the group, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP that it was “out of the question”.

Mr Badran said that, while the group does not want war, “our Palestinian people and the resistance force will undoubtedly confront and use all their capabilities to repel this aggression if this battle is imposed”.

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.

International mobilisation

The truce has prompted a flurry of diplomatic activity, with Egyptian officials confirming plans for a summit in Sharm el-Sheikh to oversee the agreement’s implementation.

US President Donald Trump, who claimed credit for pushing through the deal, is expected to lead the summit alongside Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, though no date has been confirmed.

Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed arrangements for the summit on Friday.

European leaders are also mobilising, with Emmanuel Macron scheduled to arrive in Egypt on Monday, whilst Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni have signalled their intention to attend the gathering.

The international engagement extends to military planning, with Admiral Brad Cooper, head of US Central Command (CENTCOM), making a visit to Gaza on Saturday to discuss post-conflict stabilisation efforts.

Cooper stressed that whilst American forces would help coordinate a multinational monitoring force — potentially including troops from Egypt, Qatar, Turkey and the UAE — no US troops would be deployed inside Gaza itself.

However, under Trump’s peace plan, an initial deployment of 200 US troops is set to arrive in Israel to help monitor the ceasefire.

Published in Dawn, October 12th, 2025

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