Palestinians in Gaza have said they slept peacefully for the first time in more than a year, without the fear of being bombed, following the start of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

The deal, which went into effect on Sunday, brought the first pause in fighting since November 2023, when a week-long agreement between the two sides allowed for a hostage exchange.

 

The skies above Gaza and Israel were silent overnight, as many displaced Palestinians began returning to what remained of their homes. They started to check on relatives left behind and, in many cases, to bury their dead.

The Israeli army invaded Gaza after Hamas killed around 1,200 people and kidnapped 251 others in southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in the mostly deadly ever attack against the Jewish state. Since then, more than 46,000 Palestinians have been killed, most of them civilians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. And around 1.9m of Gaza’s 2.2m people have been displaced.

People trekked through the wreckage, some on foot and others hauling their belongings on donkey carts.

“We are tired of the bombing. The people of Rafah felt humiliated and displaced. We walked long distances. We were very afraid,” said Fatma Hamad, a displaced person from Rafah.