An eerie peace has fallen over Gaza as thousands of Palestinians make the long walk back to their homes ahead of a tense ceasefire – which will see Hamas release 48 Israeli hostages
As the guns fell silent across Gaza an eerie peace marked the enclave finally entering an uneasy and tense ceasefire.
Thousands of Palestinians are making the long walk back to homes in stricken northern Gaza as peace fell upon the blighted territory. Hamas now has until midday Monday (10am BST) to hand over 48 hostages, 20 of whom are believed still to be alive but in an unknown condition. Israel will begin handing over hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, eventually releasing almost 2,000, including 250 life sentence servers.
As we viewed the Strip on Friday, from within a mile of the border, it was the first time we had seen an absence of black and grey plumes of smoke there. Israeli troops are said to have pulled back to agreed lines as part of US President Donald Trump’s 20 point peace plan, which will end Hamas’s grip on Gaza.
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For now the skies are unusually clear and Palestinians inside the Strip can breathe and celebrate a cessation in fighting, perhaps venture to see what remains of their homes if anything. But the ruined Gaza cities, buildings reduced to rubble and jagged concrete remains pointing accusingly to the sky, tell the wrenchingly awful story of what happened here.
Even the warplanes above Gaza have stopped unleashing hell on Gaza – but they are still there. Across the desert and scrubland haze it looks like a hellscape, a place where it seems impossible in parts that people have survived some of the explosions.
In recent days we have witnessed Israeli bombs piling into Gaza City as they tried to wipe out Hamas diehards. You can still hear the occasional warplane thundering through the skies, policing the peace process and ready to react if Hamas breaks the deal.
Now we can see the Strip through haze from the Israeli town of Sderot, the closest to Gaza, scene of where many Hamas fighters went on a murder rampage in 2023. As many as 1,200 were killed in the region, sparking a bloody war that killed more than 67,000 Palestinians and saw 250 people in southern Israel kidnapped. Just 48 remain, many of whom have died in captivity.
If peace continues to prevail the hostages will be handed over to the Red Cross and then to Israel’s military, briefly to be reunited with families and loved ones. Three hospitals in southern Israel are on standby to receive them, some with emergency intensive care medics as some hostages may be in urgent need to life-saving procedures.
Doctors fear also that the pressure of seeing their loved ones gaunt and changed forever by the ravages of two years of war, may be too much and risk a cardiac episode. The recovery of the hostages may take months or years but the psychological scarring may never go away.
One Israeli onlooker on Camel Hill, where we initially viewed Gaza on Friday, said: “Peace? Let’s hope it is peace. This is the moment we have all prayed for for so long.” His children stood by beaming, sensing the occasion, although they were too young to appreciate how this war has brought the region to the brink of hell and a wider war. The man continued: “We came here to see it for ourselves. It seems the bombs and shooting have stopped.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says his troops surround: “Hamas from every direction,” as if trying to hold on to the war he has continued until now.
In Gaza many Palestinians will hopefully receive a flood of aid in the coming days. But for now some are making a 20 mile walk home in baking heat, weak and malnourished by the war.
Schoolteacher Alla Saleh during the war took his wife and six children to Khan Younis , fleeing Gaza City – the last community to come under attack. He told the BBC today: “I left my family behind and started walking north. Thousands are around me and are struggling.”
And the long road to recovery is underway with emergency crews in Gaza trying to dig out the missing from the rubble – as many as 11,000 thought to be dead under the destruction.