Ceasefire comes into force as Israel’s military pulls out of parts of Gaza

The Israeli army announced that it had partially withdrawn its soldiers from some parts of Gaza following the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas that came into force on Friday morning.

Israeli forces said they had withdrawn to an agreed position within the area, although troops still occupied half of the Strip.

The footage shows thousands of Palestinians advancing towards the north of Gaza, which has been subjected to heavy bombardment by Israeli forces in recent months.

The ceasefire came into effect after the Israeli government approved the first phase of a ceasefire and hostage return agreement by US President Donald Trump on Thursday. Negotiations for the next stages are ongoing.

Under the agreement, Hamas must release all Israeli hostages, including the 20 hostages believed to be alive and the remaining 28 hostages, by 12:00 local time (10:00 BST) on Monday.

Israel also must release approximately 250 Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences in Israeli prisons. Israeli army radio said 100 would be released to the West Bank and five to East Jerusalem. More are expected to be deported.

1,700 detained Palestinians from Gaza also need to be released.

Under the terms of the agreement, aid trucks should also be allowed unrestricted access to the Strip to deliver desperately needed aid to the people of Gaza, many of whom have been displaced repeatedly during the two-year war.

Around 600 aid trucks are expected to enter Gaza every day from Friday, but details of the distribution remain unclear and it has not yet been confirmed whether more aid has reached people since the ceasefire began.

Famine was first declared in part of the region in August, with more than 500,000 people facing “catastrophic” conditions characterized by “hunger, poverty and death”, UN-backed experts said.

Israel has repeatedly denied that there is hunger in the region.

In a separate development, Nearly 200 US troops currently in the Middle East will move to Israel to help monitor the ceasefire in Gaza. According to US officials.

Eyewitnesses in Gaza said troops were withdrawing from the northwestern outskirts of Gaza City towards the east.

In the south, it was reported that some Israeli troops withdrew from the Khan Younis region.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement on social media that its troops “began positioning along updated deployment lines” as of 12:00 local time.

“IDF troops from the Southern Command are deployed in the region and will continue to eliminate any immediate threats,” the statement said.

US special envoy Steve Witkoff said US Central Command had confirmed that IDF troops had “completed the first phase withdrawal” to what he called the “yellow line”. The line was included in a map published by the White House last week showing where troops will withdraw at this stage of the ceasefire agreement, where 53% of Gaza will be controlled.

“The 72-hour period for the release of the hostages has begun,” Witkoff added.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in his televised speech that he had “fulfilled” his promise to bring back all the hostages.

He added Israeli troops were still “surrounding Hamas from every direction”, adding the next stages of Trump’s plan are that “Hamas will be disarmed and Gaza will be demilitarized”. Hamas has not committed to disarmament at this stage.

There was some confusion early Friday about when the ceasefire would be implemented. Eyewitnesses told the BBC airstrikes in Gaza continued into the early hours of Friday.

The Hamas-run health ministry said 17 people were killed in the last 24 hours.

The IDF said it would continue to operate from updated deployment lines “to eliminate any immediate threat” and urged people to avoid entering areas still under Israeli military control.

Hamas security forces were deployed on the streets in areas of Gaza City where the Israeli army withdrew. They were photographed wearing hats bearing the logo of the Hamas Internal Security agency rather than the regular police agency.

On Friday, Hamas said it rejected any “foreign tutelage” of Gaza, adding that the administration of Gaza was entirely an internal Palestinian matter.

Trump’s 20-point peace plan It states that Hamas will have no future role in Gaza, which will be governed by an interim transitional body of Palestinian technocrats chaired by Donald Trump and overseen by a “Peace Board” that includes former British prime minister Tony Blair.

Administration of the Strip will eventually be transferred to the Palestinian Authority (PA).

Hamas also expressed its hope that Gaza would benefit from “Arab and international participation in the areas of reconstruction, recovery and development support.”

While the soldiers were partially withdrawn, thousands of Palestinians were seen traveling along Gaza’s northern coastal road, mostly on foot.

Many traveled more than 20 km (12 mi) on foot, carrying what remained of their belongings on their backs.

Along the damaged narrow roads, some waved Palestinian flags and lit victory signs. But most also appeared weak and malnourished.

“The road is long and difficult, there is no food or water,” said Alaa Saleh, a teacher who fled Gaza to Khan Younis in the south with his wife and six children.

He told the BBC: “I left my family behind and started walking north. Thousands of people around me are struggling. Renting a car costs around 4,000 shekels (£924; $1,227), which is well beyond what most people can afford.”

Wael Al-Najjar, who went to his home in Jabalia in the north, said his son slept outside on the cold pavement to begin his journey home.

He told an independent reporter on the BBC: “Even if the house is destroyed, even if it is just rubble, we will return, we will set up tents and we will return to our people.”

Many on the road were targeting Gaza City, much of which had been reduced to rubble.

Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesman for the Hamas-run Gaza civil defense agency, said later Friday that “approximately 200,000 people returned to northern Gaza today,” AFP news agency reported.

Videos circulating online show large-scale demolitions in the city’s main neighbourhoods, including Sheikh Radwan in the north and Sabra and Zeytun in the south and east, with entire apartment blocks razed to the ground.

Civil defense teams in Gaza pull bodies from under the rubble. Aid agencies have warned that essential supplies such as food, fuel and clean water are critically short.

In Israel, the families of those held hostage in Gaza were happy with the news of the ceasefire.

Uri Goren, who has been campaigning for the return of his cousin’s body since October 7, 2023, after Tel Haimi was killed and taken away by Hamas two years ago, said that it gave him “a big sigh of relief” when he heard about the ceasefire agreement.

However, his relief was overshadowed by Hamas’ admission that they did not know the whereabouts of the dead hostages’ bodies. “This will not end until all 48 people return home,” he stressed.

Israel’s Gaza war was triggered by attacks led by Hamas on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which approximately 1,200 people were killed and 251 people were taken hostage.

The Hamas-run health ministry says more than 67,000 Palestinians have been killed since then, including more than 18,000 children.

UN commission of inquiry And leading experts He accused Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza during the war.

Israel categorically rejected the report, calling it “distorted and inaccurate.”

Additional reporting by Lyse Doucet, Rushdi Abualouf and Alice Cuddy