The people of Gaza have returned from the massive devastation in the old area

Gazans took in the scale of the destruction of their old city and waited for news of the three Israeli hostages to be released as a cease-fire between Hamas and Israel continued on Monday.

With a lull in the 15-month war, Palestinians are returning to the Gaza Strip, wading through the vast rubble and scrambling to salvage what they can — sofas, mattresses, chairs or trunks — from the ruins of his former home.

“People hardly know where they used to live,” English teacher Montaser Bahja said a day after visiting his old village in the northern city of Jabaliya.

In a video shared with The New York Times, Mr. Bahja, 50, can be seen running down the street with his son Alhassan, 21, trying to sort through the piles of rubble. on both sides of their memories.

“This is the house of Fahmy Abu Warda; this is the house of Abu Shaaban,” said Alhassan.

In Israel, which celebrated the return of the first group of hostages freed by Hamas as part of the truce, authorities gave only the broadest description of their conditions. Israel’s health ministry and the Sheba Medical Center, where the three women are housed in a closed wing with family members, said their first commitment was to protect the privacy of the former captives when they received medical care. -medical and psychological.

“I am happy to say that they are in a healthy condition,” said a doctor, Prof. It’s Passover. “This allows us and them to focus on what’s most important right now: being with their family.”

But the Israelis heard from one of the women on Monday.

“I’m back to life,” Emily Damari, 28, said on social media, calling herself “the happiest person in the world.”

Ms. Damari was one of about 250 people taken hostage in a Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023. About a hundred are believed to be still in Gaza, about a third of whom are believed to be dead. The rebels also killed about 1,200 people that day, according to Israel.

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 the three hostages was followed by the release of 90 prisoners, and negotiations will be held once a week for 42 days.

Palestinians in Gaza are happy about the ceasefire. Gaza health officials say more than 47,000 have died during the offensive against Israel that began after Hamas’s 2023 attack; they do not differentiate between civilians and combatants.

But events in the Middle East and in Israel on Monday showed the bitter feelings felt on both sides of the border.

When it came into force on Sunday, celebrations replaced the explosions, and hundreds of trucks with aid began to pour into Gaza, where the population has endured years of hunger and deprivation. In Israel, the returned hostages were greeted by relatives and friends. And fireworks and cheering crowds greeted newly released Palestinian prisoners in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

But the joy was overshadowed by uncertainty. The next round of negotiations between Hamas and Israel is expected to be more difficult than those that led to the 42-day ceasefire.

The fate of more than 60 other hostages and thousands more Palestinian prisoners in Israel depends on extending the deal, not to mention the prospect of an end to the protracted conflict.

“This is a time of great hope – fragile, but vital,” Tom Fletcher, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, said on social media.

The euphoria was also dampened by the prospect of long-term trouble ahead and the realization that there is still no comprehensive plan on how to rebuild Gaza. At least many of the two million people there have been displaced.

The work ahead is unimaginable.

Gazans returning to the southern town of Rafah found it mostly peaceful. The mayor said 60 percent of the buildings were destroyed, and 70 percent of the city’s sewage system.

But after 15 months of hunger and malnutrition, food and other necessities are pouring into Gaza. More than 630 trucks have infiltrated in the first day of the ceasefire, according to UN officials.

During the war, fewer people got there – and when they did, it was often dangerous to get help where it was needed. The Israeli army’s campaign defeated Hamas but did not replace it, creating a power vacuum. As the area descended into lawlessness, desperate mobs and gangs flocked to the trucks hoping for a packet of food or a basket of flour.

The show was not repeated on Sunday and Monday.

“What we noticed was that none of the trucks that came in yesterday were robbed,” said Nebal Farsakh, a spokesman for the Palestinian Red Crescent, a humanitarian aid organization.

But violence erupted in the West Bank, where Israeli residents of Palestinian towns were angered by the planned release of Palestinian prisoners, some of whom were convicted of deadly attacks on Israelis, in the armistice agreement.

In Sinjil, a town south of Nablus, dozens of men, some with slingshots, threw stones and set fire to houses, according to residents and video verified by The Times.

“People were screaming when their houses were on fire,” said one resident, Ayed Jafry, 45 years old. Several people were injured, including an 86-year-old man, he said.

After the Hamas attack that sparked the Gaza war, Israeli leaders vowed to wipe out the militants 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 territory.

In an interview with The Times, a senior Hamas official, Mousa Abu Marzouk, suggested that at least senior members of the group were expected to engage in “negotiations” with ‘i United States, although the US government has designated it as a terrorist organization ever since. 1997.

Mr. Abu Marzouk, who lives in Qatar, said Hamas was ready to accept a mission from the Trump administration despite long-standing American policy to arm Israel and protect it from international institutions.

“He can come and see the people and try to understand their feelings and desires,” he said of the mission, “so that the American position is based on the interests of all parties, not just one party.”

The report was submitted by Yazbek error, Nathan Odenheimer, Fatima Abdul KarimandAfif Amireh.