Israel agreed to the truce on Friday and pulled back troops from several areas of the territory, prompting long columns of exhausted residents to set off for the north along a coastal road.
Taking advantage of the ceasefire, Raja Salmi walked back to her home in Gaza City, where weeks of Israeli bombardment and ground operations had targeted residential area after residential area.
"We walked for hours, and every step was filled with fear and anxiety for my home," Salmi told AFP.
When she reached the Al-Rimal neighbourhood, she found her house destroyed.
"It no longer exists. It's just a pile of rubble," she said. "I stood before it and cried. All those memories are now just dust."
The flow of returnees continues, with around 50,000 people arriving in Gaza City on Saturday, according to the civil defence agency, Gaza's rescue service.
"This brings the total number of returnees to Gaza since yesterday to around 250,000 so far," said Mohammed Al-Mughayyir, an official with the agency.
Under a ceasefire deal proposed by US President Donald Trump, Hamas will hand over 47 remaining captives -- living and dead -- captured by Hamas and other Palestinian resistance groups on 7 October 2023.
In exchange, Israel will release 250 prisoners serving life sentences and 1,700 Palestinians kidnapped since the genocidal war broke out.
'Destruction, destruction'
The withdrawal of Israeli forces from some areas, announced at 0900 GMT on Friday, set the clock running on a 72-hour deadline for Hamas to release the captives, ending on Monday morning.
"We will continue to work responsibly with the mediators to ensure that the occupation is bound to protect the rights of our people and end their suffering," Hamas and Jihad said in a joint statement.
Trump told reporters on Friday he believed the ceasefire would hold, arguing that both sides were "tired of the fighting", and confirming his plans to travel to Israel and mediator Egypt this weekend.
However, many parts of the Trump proposal still have not been agreed upon, including its plans for post-war governance, and its insistence that Hamas disarm -- both of which Hamas has signalled resistance to.
At Al-Rantisi hospital, a facility for children and cancer patients, AFP footage showed wards reduced by Israeli bombardment to heaps of overturned metal beds, gaping ceilings and scattered medical equipment.
"I don't know what to say. The images speak louder than any words: destruction, destruction, and more destruction," said Saher Abu Al-Atta, a resident who had returned to the city.
With the United Nations having declared famine in City due to the Israeli blockade just before the outset of the latest Israeli assault on GAza City, aid agencies are hoping the ceasefire will give them the opportunity to surge in aid.
The UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says it has been given the green light by Israel to deliver 170,000 tonnes of aid under a response plan for the first 60 days of the truce.
"The most basic necessities are still urgently needed in Gaza: medical equipment, medicines, food, water, fuel, and adequate shelter for two million people who will face the approaching winter without a roof over their heads," said Jacob Granger, Gaza coordinator for Doctors Without Borders (MSF).
'Ghost town'
Men, women and children navigated streets filled with rubble, searching for homes amid collapsed concrete slabs, destroyed vehicles and debris.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said last month that 1.9 million Palestinians have been forcibly displaced by Israel in the Gaza Strip.
While some returned in vehicles, most walked carrying belongings in bags strapped to their shoulders.
Sami Musa, 28, returned alone to check on his family's house.
"Thank God... I found that our home is still standing, though it has suffered some damage that we can repair," Musa told AFP.
Nonetheless, the destruction in Gaza City left him shocked.
"It felt like a ghost town, not Gaza," Musa said.
"The smell of death still lingers in the air," he added, vowing to rebuild.
Israel has killed at least 67,682 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly women and children, and wounded more than 170,000 others, in what the International Court of Justice deemed as acts of a genocide in January of 2024.
*This story was edited by Ahram Online.
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