Palestinians return to Gaza after ceasefire comes into force
A displaced Palestinian has described scenes in Gaza as akin to “destruction, total destruction”, as a search for thousands of people buried under rubble gets under way.
Mohamed Gomaa’s brother and nephew are among the 47,000 people estimated by the Gaza health ministry to have been killed since the war started.
Now, with the ceasefire now in effect, attention is starting to shift to the rebuilding of the coastal enclave demolished by Israel in retaliation for a Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023 which killed 1,200 people.
“It was a big shock, and the amount (of people) feeling shocked is countless because of what happened to their homes – it’s destruction, total destruction” Gomaa said.
“It’s not like an earthquake or a flood, no no, what happened is a war of extermination,” he said.”
Key events
China – which historically has been supportive of the two-state solution and has long openly sympathised with the Palestinian cause – has expressed support for the Gaza ceasefire, which seems so far to be holding.
During a news briefing, the country’s foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said:
China welcomes the Gaza ceasefire agreement coming into effect. We hope the agreement will be fully and continuously implemented, and a comprehensive and permanent ceasefire in Gaza will be achieved.
China will continue to work with the international community to promote peace and stability in the Middle East.
The Israeli military says a soldier was killed and another was seriously injured in the occupied West Bank.
The military declined to provide further details, according to a report by the Associated Press. Israeli media reported on Monday that the soldiers’ vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb in the northern West Bank overnight.
The Israeli military has said that over 400 of its soldiers have been killed in combat since its war on Gaza was launched in late October 2023.
For a more in-depth look at the damage to Gaza’s buildings and infrastructure caused by the war, take a look at the gallery below created by The Guardian’s photography team
More now on a future rebuild of Gaza. A UN report released last year stated it would be at least 2040 until the strip is rebuilt, while a UN damage assessment estimated the cost at around $1.2bn.
The debris is believed to be contaminated with asbestos, with some refugee camps struck during the war known to have been built with the material.
Israel said its goal in the war was to eradicate Hamas and destroy the tunnel network it built underground.
Residents and medics in Gaza told the Reuters news agency today for the most part the ceasefire appeared to be holding, although there were isolated incidents.
Medics said eight people had been hit by Israeli fire since Monday morning in the southern city of Rafah, without giving details of their condition.
Palestinians return to Gaza after ceasefire comes into force
A displaced Palestinian has described scenes in Gaza as akin to “destruction, total destruction”, as a search for thousands of people buried under rubble gets under way.
Mohamed Gomaa’s brother and nephew are among the 47,000 people estimated by the Gaza health ministry to have been killed since the war started.
Now, with the ceasefire now in effect, attention is starting to shift to the rebuilding of the coastal enclave demolished by Israel in retaliation for a Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023 which killed 1,200 people.
“It was a big shock, and the amount (of people) feeling shocked is countless because of what happened to their homes – it’s destruction, total destruction” Gomaa said.
“It’s not like an earthquake or a flood, no no, what happened is a war of extermination,” he said.”
The mother of American journalist Austin Tice has expressed hope that the new administrations in the US and Syria would help her find her missing son, who was taken captive during a reporting trip near Damascus about 12 years ago.
“Today, January 20, President (Donald) Trump will be sworn into office and I have great hope that his administration will work to bring Austin home,” Debra Tice told a press conference in Damascus this morning.
Tice has criticised outgoing US President Joe Biden’s administration, saying they did not negotiate hard enough for her son’s release. She said she was hopeful because officials in the new US government had already reached out to her about her missing son.
Austin Tice, a former US marine and freelance journalist from Houston, was abducted in August 2012 while reporting on the uprising against the then president Bashar al-Assad in Damascus, the Syrian capital.
Assad’s overthrow by Syrian rebels in December has allowed his mother to visit again from her home in Texas, but she said since the Hayat Tahrir al Sham led offensive it has become even more difficult to know where her son is being held and by whom.
Tice met Syria’s new leaders on Sunday, whom she said demonstrated a “dedication” to bring her son back. “The new administration knows what we’re going through and they’re trying to make things right for people like us,” she said.
Faisal Ali
Ismail Baghaei, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson, has given a dismal report card on the Biden administration’s foreign policy during a press conference this morning, accusing Biden of siding with an “open genocide” by Israel in Gaza.
Baghaei said that Biden’s foreign policy team had delivered “one of the worst performances in the last 60 years, because the last 16 months of this administration’s tenure were spent siding with an open genocide in the region.”
How will the Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal work?
Here are the main elements of the Gaza ceasefire deal, as outlined by my colleague Bethan McKernan. You can read her explainer about the agreement and whether or not it is likely to lead to a permanent ceasefire here.
What’s in the deal?
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All fighting is to pause during the first 42-day phase. Israeli forces are to withdraw from Gaza’s cities to a “buffer zone” along the edge of the strip, displaced Palestinians will be able to return home and there will be a marked increase in aid deliveries.
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In the second stage, of unclear duration, the remaining living hostages will be returned and a corresponding ratio of Palestinian prisoners freed, alongside a complete Israeli withdrawal from the strip. The Rafah crossing to Egypt will be opened for the sick and wounded to leave. It is unclear whether it will be returned to Palestinian control.
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The third phase, which could last years, would address the exchange of bodies of deceased hostages and Hamas members, and a reconstruction plan for Gaza. Much of the international community has advocated for the semi-autonomous West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, which lost control of Gaza to Hamas in 2007, to return to the strip. Israel, however, has repeatedly rejected the suggestion.
How will stage one work?
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A total of 33 hostages will be released over the next six weeks, in exchange for about 1,700 Palestinians held in Israel prisons, about 1,000 of whom are from Gaza and were arrested after 7 October 2023 under emergency legislation which allowed detention without charge or trial.
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Three female captives – named by Hamas as Romi Gonen, Doron Steinbrecher and Emily Damari – were freed first in exchange for about 90 Palestinians. A handful of Israelis will then be released every Saturday for the next six weeks; the number of Palestinians to be freed upon their return generally depends on whether the Israelis are civilians or soldiers. Some of the freed Palestinians from the West Bank sentenced for serious crimes against Israelis will be sent to third countries rather than be allowed to return home.
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In Gaza, people displaced from their homes will be allowed to move freely around the Palestinian territory from day seven, and 600 trucks of aid will arrive each day to alleviate the strip’s dire humanitarian conditions.
Here are some of the latest images sent to us over the newswires:
Hamas policemen stand guard after being deployed in the streets to maintain order in Gaza City. Photograph: Dawoud Abu Alkas/Reuters
Faisal Ali
Israel’s campaign of aerial bombing has devastated the Gaza Strip. According to an analysis by the United Nations Satellite Centre (UNOSAT), more than two-thirds of all buildings in Gaza have sustained some damage, which they estimate to be around 163,778 buildings. Approximately 52,564 structures are estimated to have been destroyed.
Gaza’s two largest cities, Gaza City and Khan Younis, are two of the most badly affected areas, where 74% of buildings and 55% of buildings are believed to have been either damaged or destroyed. Here are some satellite images we’ve gathered from Planet Labs, showing the scale of destruction in these two major urban areas.
Here are two satellite images of Gaza City’s centre:
And here is a before and after image of Khan Younis:
Houthis say they’ll limit their attacks in the Red Sea corridor
Yemen’s Houthi rebels have indicated they will limit their attacks in the Red Sea corridor to only Israeli-affiliated ships as the ceasefire in Gaza takes hold.
Making the announcement in an email to other shippers yesterday, the Houthis said they were “stopping sanctions” on the other vessels it previously targeted in attacks.
Since October 2023, the Iran-backed Houthis have positioned themselves as a key member of Tehran’s regional network of allies, which includes armed groups in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq.
The Houthis have targeted about 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones since then, saying they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
In recent weeks, only about 40 trucks of aid were getting in on average, while before the war started in October 2023, around 500 trucks entered Gaza every day.
The ceasefire agreement allows for 600 trucks a day of aid to enter Gaza, where nine out of 10 Palestinians are going hungry and experts warn that famine is imminent in areas. Israel faces accusations it is using starvation as a weapon of war, accusations it denies.
A spokesperson from the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has told Al Jazeera that trucks packed with lifesaving aid are waiting in Jordan, Egypt and the occupied West Bank loaded with food, water, tents and medical supplies.
There are hopes that the ceasefire will help to, at least partly, ease the dire humanitarian crisis caused by Israel’s war on Gaza, with widespread shortages of food, medicine and clean water across the strip. Displaced by Israeli airstrikes, hundreds of thousands of Palestinian people have been packed into crowded refugee camps along the coast, enduring cold winter weather amid widespread malnutrition. Aid groups have struggled to deliver food and supplies, accusing Israel of blocking deliveries up until now.
PRCS spokesperson Nebal Farsakh said healthcare is the top priority as health infrastructure in northern Gaza effectively collapsed during the war.
“The medical supplies and medications, these will be going to support the work of the Palestine Crescent at our hospitals and medical points in addition to a new field hospital we are currently establishing in Gaza in order to support the people there, especially as the healthcare system in northern Gaza has collapsed,” Farsakh told Al Jazeera, speaking from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.
“The majority of hospitals were taken out of service, and now there’s expectation that thousands of families will be going back to Gaza City and the north, and we need to be prepared to provide healthcare services for the displaced families there.”
As my colleague Bethan McKernan notes in this explainer, a total of 33 hostages will be released over the next six weeks, in exchange for about 1,700 Palestinians held in Israel prisons, about 1,000 of whom are from Gaza and were arrested after 7 October 2023 under emergency legislation which allowed detention without charge or trial.
In an interview with French broadcaster BFMTV, France’s foreign minister, Jean-Noel Barrot, said that the government will continue pushing for the release of the two French-Israeli nationals still being held by Hamas, the Palestinian militant group.
Ofer Kalderon and Ohad Yahalomi are expected to be on the list of 33 hostages to be set free in the first phase of the ceasefire deal, which will see the staggered release of hostages.
“We will continue to fight until the last hour for their release,” Barrot told BFM TV, adding that France had “no news on their health status nor on the terms of their detention”.
‘I’ve returned to my beloved life,’ freed British-Israeli hostage says
Emily Damari – the dual British-Israeli national who was among the first three hostages freed by Hamas yesterday – has said she has “returned to my beloved life”, thanking God, her family, her girlfriend, Oreli, and “the best friends I have in this world”in a post on Instagram.
She said the outpouring of love she received following her release made her heart “explode with excitement”.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you. I’m the happiest in the world just to be.”
Hamas kidnapped Damari from her apartment in the Kfar Aza kibbutz on 7 October 2023, along with 37 other residents of the community on the Gaza border. She was the only hostage with British citizenship being held. Damari was pictured with two missing fingers upon her return – an injury reportedly sustained when she was shot before being captured. You can read more about Damari and the other two hostages freed yesterday in this profile.
