Gazans faced the scale of destruction of their old settlements and Israelis awaited news about three hostages recently freed as a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel continued on Monday.
With the 15-month war at a standstill, Palestinians are returning to the parts of the Gaza Strip they fled, picking through vast amounts of rubble and trying to salvage what they can – a couch, a mattress, a chair or a crate – from the ruins of their original homes.
“People don’t know the places they used to live,” said Montaser Bahja, an English teacher, after a day visiting his neighborhood in the northern town of Jabaliya.
In a video shared with The New York Times, Mr. Bahja, 50, can be seen running through the streets with her son Alhassan, 21, and trying to reconcile the piles of debris hanging on both sides with their memories.
“This is the home of Fahmy Abu Warda; this is Abu Shaaban’s home,” Alhassan was heard saying.
In Israel, celebrating the return of the first group of hostages released by Hamas as part of a cease-fire deal, authorities gave only broad descriptions of their conditions. Israel’s health ministry and Sheba Medical Center, where the three women are staying in a closed unit with family members, said their primary commitment was to protect the privacy of the abductees as they received medical and psychological care.
“I am happy to report that they are in a satisfactory condition,” said one of their doctors, Prof. Itai Pessach. “That allows us, and them, to focus on what’s most important right now: meeting their families.”
But the Israelis heard from one of the women on Monday.
“I’m back in life,” said Emily Damari, 28, on social media, describing herself as “the happiest person in the world.”
Ms. Damari was one of about 250 people kidnapped in a Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023. About 100 are believed to be still in Gaza, and about a third of those are believed to be dead. The army also killed about 1,200 people that day, Israel said.
Under the terms of the ceasefire, Hamas agreed to release 33 hostages in exchange for the release of more than 1,000 Palestinians from Israeli prisons. The return of three hostages was followed by the release of 90 prisoners, and negotiations are to take place once a week during the 42-day deadline.
The Palestinians in Gaza welcomed the ceasefire. Gazan health officials say more than 47,000 people have been killed during the Israeli offensive that began after the 2023 Hamas attack; they do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
But the scenes playing out in the enclave and in Israel on Monday included bitter feelings felt on both sides of the border.
As the deal went into effect on Sunday, celebrations turned to explosions, and hundreds of aid trucks began rolling into Gaza, where residents have endured a grueling year of hunger and deprivation. In Israel, returned captives are met with joy by relatives and friends. And fireworks and jubilant crowds greeted newly freed Palestinian prisoners in the Israeli-controlled West Bank.
But the excitement was clouded by uncertainty. The next round of negotiations between Hamas and Israel is expected to be more difficult than the one that led to the 42-day ceasefire.
The fate of more than 60 other hostages and thousands of other Palestinian prisoners in Israel, to say nothing of the prospect of a long-term end to the fighting, depends on extending the deal.
“This is a time of great hope – fragile, but important,” said Tom Fletcher, United Nations Secretary-General on communications.
The euphoria was also tempered by the prospect of a long crisis ahead and the knowledge that there is currently no comprehensive plan for how Gaza will be rebuilt. Most of the two million residents there have left their homes at least once,
The task ahead is incredibly difficult.
Gazans who returned to the southern city of Rafah found it flat. The mayor said 60 percent of the houses were destroyed, as well as 70 percent of the city’s sewage system.
But after 15 months of hunger and shortages, food and other essentials are now entering Gaza. More than 630 trucks entered the area on the first day of the ceasefire, according to United Nations officials.
During the fighting, very few went in – and when they did, it was often too dangerous to get help where it was needed. Israel’s military campaign knocked Hamas back without replacing it, creating a power vacuum. As the mob infiltrates the law, desperate mobs and gangs fill trucks in the hope of finding a parcel of food or a sack of flour.
The scenes are not repeated on Sunday and Monday.
“The most noticeable thing is that none of the trucks that entered yesterday were looted,” said Nebal Farsakh, spokesman for the Palestinian Red Crescent, a humanitarian organization.
But violence erupted in the West Bank, where Israeli settlers live in Palestinian villages amid anger over the release of Palestinian prisoners, some of whom were convicted of murdering Israelis, in a ceasefire deal.
In Sinjil, a town south of Nablus, dozens of men, some with slingshots, threw stones and set fire to houses, according to residents and videos verified by The Times.
“People were screaming as their houses burned,” said another resident, Ayed Jafry, 45. Many people were injured, including an 86-year-old man.
After the Hamas attack that started the war in Gaza, Israeli leaders vowed to get rid of the militias once and for all. But in the first two days of the ceasefire, Hamas has made it clear that it intends to remain the dominant force in the region.
In an interview with The Times, Hamas chief Mousa Abu Marzouk suggested that at least some senior members of the group hope to engage in “dialogue” with the United States, despite the fact that the US government has designated it as a terrorist organization since then. 1997.
Mr. Abu Marzouk, who is based in Qatar, said that Hamas is ready to receive an envoy from the Trump administration despite the long-standing American policy of providing Israel with weapons and protection from international institutions.
“He can come to see the people and try to understand their feelings and desires,” he said of the ambassador, “so that the American position is based on what all groups want, not just one group.”
Reporting contributed by Hiba Yazbek, Nathan Odenheimer, Fatima AbdulKarimagainAfif Amireh.
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