Gaza City residents return as Israel says ceasefire has started

Palestinian families have begun returning to decimated Gaza City, as Israel continued deadly attacks on the enclave until the Israeli military said the first phase of the ceasefire deal went into effect at 12:00pm (09:00 GMT).

According to a military update on Friday, the Israeli army “positioned themselves in the latest deployment lines, in accordance with the outline of the ceasefire agreement”. The Israeli forces “in the Southern Command are deployed in the area and will continue to operate to eliminate any immediate threat”, it added.

President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff said on X said that the Israeli military had completed the first phase of withdrawal in Gaza and the 72-hour period for the release of captives had commenced.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians have now been making the long and pained journey toward northern Gaza after the ceasefire took effect.

Earlier, as displaced families from the southern parts of the enclave moved north on Friday, Israel launched a deadly attack from helicopters on a site east of Gaza City and conducted air attacks in the southern Khan Younis area, according to Al Jazeera Arabic.

Sources at Gaza City’s al-Ahli Hospital confirmed to Al Jazeera that the bodies of seven people had been recovered from several areas in Gaza City since Friday morning.

There were no initial reports of casualties in the attacks on Khan Younis, which also included rounds of shelling and heavy tank fire north of the city, according to Al Jazeera Arabic.

The attacks are the first to be reported in Gaza since Israel’s government ratified the first phase of a ceasefire deal with Hamas late on Thursday night.

The attacks took place as Al Jazeera’s team on the ground reported Israel had started to pull its troops back behind the line agreed under the Gaza deal.

“What is controversial is that there has been high activity of Israeli drones, fighter jets and even warships from the early hours of this morning,” said Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Nuseirat in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza.

Abu Azzoum said families had started moving towards the north of the Strip, but were still waiting to enter the areas in the Netzarim Corridor, where the Israeli army used to operate.

“They are waiting for the last Israeli tank to leave the region to enter the territory,” he said.

Gaza’s civil defence warned people to keep away from the border areas of Gaza City until the official announcement of the withdrawal of Israeli forces.

Gaza’s police force said officers would “fulfil their duties of serving and supporting citizens, and protecting public and private property”, urging people to be “extremely cautious” and to look out for “suspicious objects, hazardous waste, and unexploded bombs” when returning to their homes.

Amjad Shawa, head of the Palestinian NGOs Network, told Al Jazeera that Palestinians were  “exercising their right to return”, illustrating “the failure of Israel in its efforts to deport the Palestinians from their land”.

He said his network had held “intensive meetings” with United Nations agencies and international NGOs to provide services to returning people as soon as possible.

Earlier, Israel’s government approved “phase one” of a ceasefire agreement, which will see captives exchanged and Israel withdraw from parts of Gaza, but details of how it fits into a wider plan to bring lasting peace, if at all, remain unclear.

Khalil al-Hayya, the head of Hamas’s negotiating team, said the group has received guarantees from the United States and mediators that an agreement on a first phase of the ceasefire agreement means the war in Gaza “has ended completely”.

The Israeli government’s ratification of the peace plan, which was confirmed in the early hours of Friday morning, paves the way for fighting in Gaza to stop within 24 hours, while Hamas has been given a 72-hour timeline to free Israeli captives.

Palestine’s Quds News Network reported that Gaza residents who left the Strip from Egypt will be allowed to return home through the Rafah crossing for the first time since October 7, 2023. Gaza residents will also be allowed to exit to Egypt.

About 600 aid trucks will be allowed to enter Gaza daily, with traffic circulating freely from the south to the north of the Gaza Strip on Salah al-Din and Rashid roads.