GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians began returning to what remains of their neighbourhoods on Saturday, navigating through dust-filled streets and heaps of rubble as a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas held for a second day.
According to the Associated Press (AP), bulldozers were seen clearing roads in Gaza City and Khan Younis while families sifted through the debris of their destroyed homes. The truce — brokered with the backing of the United States, Egypt, and Qatar — has temporarily halted fighting after nearly two years of devastating war that has displaced over 90% of Gaza’s population.
Humanitarian organisations have urged Israel to reopen additional border crossings to allow life-saving aid to flow into the enclave. “When people get there, they’re going to find rubble. They’ll find that their homes and their neighbourhoods have been reduced to dust,” said Tess Ingram, a UNICEF spokesperson, in remarks to AP.
“A ceasefire alone is not enough,” Ingram added. “We need a surge of humanitarian aid that begins to address the tremendous damage that has been done over the past two years.”
U.S. Troops in Israel to Coordinate Humanitarian Response
About 200 U.S. troops have arrived in Israel to assist in setting up a coordination centre for humanitarian aid and to help monitor the ceasefire, U.S. officials confirmed to Reuters and AP. The centre will facilitate the flow of food, medical supplies, and reconstruction materials into Gaza, without placing American boots on the ground inside the enclave.
“This great effort will be achieved with no U.S. boots on the ground in Gaza,” said Admiral Brad Cooper, head of the U.S. Central Command, in a statement on Saturday.
The troops will work alongside Israeli and international partners to support logistical operations, hostage recovery, and ceasefire verification.
Aid Distribution Expands Slowly
The World Food Programme (WFP) announced it is ready to reopen 145 food distribution points across Gaza, significantly expanding from the four centres operated by the U.S.- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation since May. A U.N. official quoted by AP said Israel had approved expanded aid deliveries beginning Sunday, though the details remain unclear.
The Israeli Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) reported that more than 500 trucks entered Gaza on Friday. However, aid agencies say this is far from sufficient given the catastrophic scale of need. Nearly 170,000 metric tons of food aid remain stuck in neighbouring countries awaiting clearance.
Hostage Release and Ceasefire Commitments
Under the truce deal, 48 hostages still held in Gaza are expected to be freed on Monday, according to Israeli military officials quoted by AP and Haaretz. Families in Israel gathered at Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square on Saturday, lighting candles and praying for their return.
“It’s been a few nights that we can’t sleep. We want them back and we feel that everything is just hanging on a thread,” said Maayan Eliasi, a Tel Aviv resident.
The war, which began after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, assault on southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people, has since claimed more than 67,000 Palestinian lives, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry — a figure broadly cited by the United Nations and independent monitors as the most reliable estimate. Nearly half of those killed were women and children.
Questions Over Gaza’s Future
As Israeli troops gradually withdraw from parts of Gaza, uncertainty looms over who will govern the territory and whether Hamas will agree to disarm, as stipulated in the ceasefire agreement. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned that the offensive could resume if Hamas fails to meet disarmament conditions.
“If it’s achieved the easy way, so be it. If not, it will be achieved the hard way,” Netanyahu said on Friday, pledging that Israel would ensure Hamas’s disarmament “one way or another.”
Meanwhile, reports cited by AP and The Guardian indicate that U.S. President Donald Trump’s new 20-point plan envisions Israel maintaining an open-ended military presence along Gaza’s border, with an international force — primarily from Arab and Muslim nations — handling internal security.
Mountains of Rubble and Rising Death Toll
The scale of destruction in Gaza is staggering. The U.N. estimates that more than three-quarters of all buildings have been destroyed, leaving behind debris equivalent to 25 Eiffel Towers. A joint European Union–World Bank assessment earlier this year placed the reconstruction cost at nearly $49 billion, including $16 billion for housing and $6.3 billion for healthcare infrastructure.
As calm returned, hospitals began receiving bodies unearthed from the ruins. A manager at Shifa Hospital told AP that 45 bodies recovered from Gaza City’s rubble had been brought in over the past 24 hours — victims believed to have perished weeks earlier during Israeli bombardments.
A Fragile Pause
Though the ceasefire has brought temporary relief to war-weary civilians, aid agencies caution that the humanitarian situation remains catastrophic. Access to clean water, electricity, and medicine is still severely limited, while disease and malnutrition are spreading rapidly.
“The war may be paused, but the suffering continues,” said a Red Cross official quoted by Reuters. “Without a sustained commitment to rebuilding Gaza, this truce will be just another brief lull in a cycle of devastation.”
For many Palestinians returning home this weekend, the reality is stark — entire neighbourhoods have vanished, and the question of what comes next remains unanswered.
Sources: Associated Press, Al Jazeera, Reuters, and other international media outlets
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