“We went to sleep happy. It’s a shame that they would deprive us of this happiness," said Karam Moeiliq from central Gaza. “Everyone has losses. It’s enough.”

Hours after getting their hopes up about returning home, families sheltering in Deir al-Balah are grappling with uncertainty about their future.

“We ask our brothers in Hamas to communicate with mediators to end the war. Enough with the destruction and killing,” said Omar Jendiya from Gaza City.

At least 72 Palestinians were killed across the war-torn territory since the deal was announced on Wednesday. The truce is expected to begin Sunday.

“We want peace. We want to live like everyone in the world is living," said Fayqa Hussein, a displaced woman from Jabaliya refugee camp. “We want to live in safety. We want to teach our children what they missed at school.”

The health ministry in Gaza said on Thursday that 81 people were killed in the Palestinian territory in the previous 24 hours, taking the overall war death toll to 46,788.

Mahmoud Bassal, spokesman for Gaza's civil defense agency, told AFP that among the people killed were 20 children and 25 women, with around 200 others wounded.

The ministry said at least 110,453 people have been wounded in more than 15 months of relentless Israeli bombardment, which has reduced Gaza to rubble and displaced 90 percent of its 2.4 million population.