Aid trucks flow into Gaza, displaced residents start returning home as truce holds

More than 630 trucks of humanitarian aid have flowed into the Gaza Strip since the onset of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas Sunday morning, the UN said, as the terror group claimed it would “rise again,” and displaced Palestinians began returning to their homes, taking stock of what was left.

“There is no time to lose,” wrote Tom Fletcher, the United Nations under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, on X. “After 15 months of relentless war, the humanitarian needs are staggering.”

Fletcher said at least 300 of the trucks were bringing humanitarian assistance into the north, where the reported need is particularly acute, and where Israel has at times been accused of not doing enough to facilitate aid, or intentionally preventing the flow of aid, both of which it denies.

The hostage-ceasefire agreement that went into effect Sunday requires 600 truckloads of aid to be allowed into Gaza every day of the initial six-week truce, including 50 carrying fuel. Half of the aid trucks are to be delivered to the north.

On Sunday evening, Hamas released the first three hostages to be freed in the first phase of the ceasefire, and Israel released the first 90 Palestinian security prisoners.

Israel has been at war with Hamas since the terror group’s October 7, 2023 attack, when thousands of terrorists burst into southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.

In his statement, Fletcher noted, “Today also brings a measure of relief in Israel as the first hostages have been released to be reunited with their families.” He added, “Detained Palestinian women and children were also released today, in line with the ceasefire agreement.”

The 90 Palestinian prisoners released on Monday included between 21 and 28 men, according to contradictory media reports, all of which said they included some nine minors. The Israel Prison Services did not provide an exact breakdown.

More than 630 trucks with humanitarian aid entered Gaza today, with at least 300 of them going to the north.

There is no time to lose. pic.twitter.com/X3zdKnI790

— Tom Fletcher (@UNReliefChief) January 19, 2025

Warning shots

Residents and medics in Gaza on Monday said that, for the most part, the ceasefire appeared to be holding, although there were isolated incidents.

They claimed eight people had been hit by Israeli fire since Monday morning in the southern city of Rafah, without giving details of their condition. The Israeli military said it fired warning shots against suspects who approached troops deployed according to the ceasefire agreement.

At the same time, Mahmoud Basal, spokesperson of the Hamas-run Palestinian Civil Emergency Services, said they were “searching for 10,000 martyrs whose bodies remain under the rubble.” At least 2,840 bodies were melted and there were no traces of them, he said.

Hamas agencies’ numbers, including casualty counts, cannot be verified, and they do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

Hamas vows to ‘rise again’

Hamas said in a statement Monday that Gaza and its people “will rise again” and rebuild the territory, and vowed to “continue on the path of steadfastness until the occupation is defeated.”

“Over the course of 471 days, the systematic crimes of the occupation have failed to dissuade our people and their valiant resistance from clinging to the land and confronting the aggression,” the terror group said.

Meanwhile, in central Gaza, pedestrians and drivers moved around freely on Monday along the main coastal road that hugs the Mediterranean Sea, a semblance of normal life belied by the rows of hundreds of tents housing displaced families.

With a growing flow of aid into the Palestinian enclave, residents flocked into markets, with some expressing happiness at the lower prices and the presence of new food items like imported chocolates.

“The prices have gone down, the war is over, and the crossing is open to more goods,” said Aya Mohammad-Zaki, a displaced woman from Gaza City who has been sheltering in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza.

First night without strikes

In the southern city of Khan Younis, war-displaced Gazan Ammar Barbakh awoke on Monday feeling refreshed after a night spent in a tent, but free of Israeli attacks.

“This is the first time I sleep comfortably and I’m not afraid,” Barbakh, 35, told AFP. “We didn’t hear any shelling, and we weren’t afraid.”

Barbakh pitched a tent on the rubble of his former home. Despite the destruction, he was thrilled to have had a peaceful sleep. “It’s a beautiful feeling, and I hope the ceasefire continues,” he said.

Thousands of displaced Palestinians like him have headed back to their home areas across the Gaza Strip since the ceasefire came into effect on Sunday.

For Samer Daloul, “it was the first night we slept in peace” since the war’s first truce, a one-week pause in November 2023, about two months after fighting erupted.

“The sound of fighter jets and drones was present all night, but the airstrikes stopped,” said Daloul.

Returning to rubble

Many Gazans returning to their homes in Rafah found homes and neighborhoods flattened.

Though residents were able to return to their home neighborhoods or cities after being displaced within the area, movement from southern Gaza into northern Gaza will only be permitted on day seven of the truce. The IDF established a humanitarian zone for nearly two million displaced Gazans in the south of the enclave.

“We found destruction, destruction,” said Mohamed Abu al-Kheir, a Palestinian man who sheltered in a tent in the city of Khan Younis, upon his return to southern Gaza’s Rafah. “There is nothing to live in. There is no furniture or anything.”

The Associated Press footage showed large swaths of Rafah turned into rubble. People were seen searching the remains of their homes. Others searched two military vehicles that Israeli forces left behind when they withdrew from the area.

“Who wants to live in such destruction? No one will come to live here,” said Mahmoud Khamis, another Rafah resident whose house was destroyed.

Noha Abed, 28, has returned with her husband and three children to the family’s Rafah home, which now has only one livable room.

But after cleaning it and putting their belongings in what is left of the house, Abed said the family “wants to live in it until the rebuilding happens.”

For now, her focus is on securing “food, water, electricity, bedding, and blankets” for the family, who had been sleeping in a tent further north for about 10 months, said Abed.

Despite the difficult conditions, she said that this was “the first night I sleep without being afraid for my children.”

Looking ahead, Abed said, “The most important thing is that the war does not resume.”

The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 46,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 18,000 combatants in battle as of November, and another 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.

Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas, including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.

Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip stands at 407. The toll includes a police officer killed in a hostage rescue mission and a Defense Ministry civilian contractor.

It is believed that 91 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 34 confirmed dead by the IDF.

Hamas has so far released three hostages during the ceasefire that began in January. The terror group released 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November 2023, and four hostages were released before that.

Eight hostages were rescued alive by troops, and the bodies of 40 hostages were also recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military, as they tried to escape their captors.

Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the body of an IDF soldier who was killed in 2014.