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11-10-2025
GAZA STRIP: Palestinians returning to their homes in the Gaza Strip have told the AFP news agency they are feeling mixed emotions as they make their journeys.
In Khan Younis, in the south of the Gaza Strip, Ameer Abu Iyadeh, 32, said, “We thank God for this situation” even as “we’re going back to our areas, full of wounds and sorrow”.
Mohammed Mortaja, 39, said that he was praying that when he returns to his home in Gaza City, it won’t have been destroyed.
“We only hope the war will end for good, so we’ll never have to flee again,” he said.
Areej Abu Saadaeh, 53, who was displaced early in the conflict, said she was finally heading home.
“I’m happy about the truce and peace, even though I’m a mother of a son and a daughter who were killed, and I grieve for them deeply. Yet, the truce also brings joy: returning to our homes,” she said.
Tens of thousands of forcibly displaced Palestinians are returning to devastated towns and cities in northern Gaza as the Israeli military ceases fire and partially withdraws from the territory under the first phase of a peace deal with Hamas.
US President Donald Trump said Israeli captives held in Gaza are due for release on Monday. “They’re getting them now,” he said.
Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) have said they reject “any foreign guardianship” of the Gaza Strip, while Gaza officials have called for an independent, international investigation into war crimes and genocide during Israel’s war on the enclave.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has called for all crossings into Gaza to be opened, saying that there are 6,000 aid trucks ready to reach Gaza in hours.
Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 67,211 people and wounded 169,961 since October 2023. Thousands more are believed to be buried under the rubble of destroyed buildings. A total of 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the October 7, 2023, attacks and about 200 were taken captive.
Gaza peace deal is great for Arabs: Trump
As we previously reported, President Trump announced, when speaking at the White House a short while ago, that the 48 remaining living and deceased Israeli captives held in Gaza will be released on Monday.
The US leader also hailed the ceasefire he helped broker as good for all sides, and praised the assistance given to him by several Arab and Muslim-majority countries, naming Egypt, Jordan and Indonesia.
“It’s a great deal for Israel, but it’s a great deal for everybody for Arabs, for Muslims, everybody, for the world,” Trump said and “I can tell you that I saw Israel dancing in the streets, but they were dancing in Qatar and Saudi Arabia and UAE, and many, many countries. I saw Egypt. They were dancing,” he added.
At noon local time on Friday, Israel announced that the ceasefire had begun, marking an end to the war in Gaza that lasted two years and two days.
Israel has confirmed that Israeli forces did withdraw from the initial point where they were going to that line that was agreed upon in those negotiations signed by all parties.
Now, Hamas will have 72 hours to release the Israeli captives held in Gaza, 20 of whom Israel says are alive and 28 who are deceased.
After all of that takes place, Israel will release 250 Palestinian security prisoners serving life or long sentences, in addition to the near 2,000 Palestinians who had been detained from Gaza by Israeli troops during the war. (Int’l News Desk)
