GAZA, Oct 11: The Israeli military has begun a partial withdrawal from parts of Gaza after a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas came into effect on Friday morning, the BBC reported. Israeli forces said they had pulled back to pre-agreed lines inside the territory but still occupy about half of the Strip. Videos obtained by the BBC showed thousands of Palestinians heading north through devastated neighbourhoods that had been heavily bombarded for months.
The ceasefire followed Israel’s approval of the first phase of a US-brokered plan on Thursday night, according to the BBC. Further stages of the agreement are still under discussion. Under the terms of the deal, Hamas has until Monday noon local time to release all Israeli hostages, including 20 believed to be alive and the remains of 28 others, the BBC said. Israel is expected to release around 250 Palestinian prisoners serving life terms, 100 of whom will be freed in the West Bank and five in East Jerusalem, with others to be deported. Another 1,700 Palestinian detainees from Gaza will also be released, the BBC added.
The agreement also allows aid trucks to enter Gaza without restriction to deliver food, medicine, and fuel to the population, which has been repeatedly displaced during the two-year conflict. Around 600 aid lorries are expected daily, though the BBC said it remains unclear if the supplies have started reaching civilians since the truce began. In August, UN-backed experts declared famine in parts of Gaza, warning that more than half a million people faced catastrophic hunger and starvation. Israel has rejected claims that famine conditions exist, the BBC reported.
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US officials told the BBC that about 200 American troops stationed in the Middle East will be deployed to Israel to help monitor the ceasefire. Eyewitnesses in Gaza said Israeli soldiers had withdrawn from the northwestern outskirts of Gaza City toward the east, while others pulled back from areas around Khan Younis in the south. The Israeli Defense Forces said troops had begun “positioning themselves along updated deployment lines” from midday and would continue to respond to any immediate threats, according to the BBC.
US special envoy Steve Witkoff confirmed to the BBC that Israel’s forces had completed the first phase of withdrawal to the so-called “yellow line,” a boundary that would leave Israel controlling 53 percent of Gaza. He said the 72-hour period for releasing hostages had officially begun. In a televised address, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was keeping his promise to bring hostages home and claimed that Israeli troops continued to surround Hamas from all sides. He said the next phases of the plan would involve disarming Hamas and demilitarising Gaza, though Hamas has made no such commitment, the BBC reported.
Residents told the BBC that despite the ceasefire announcement, Israeli air strikes continued into the early hours of Friday. The Hamas-run health ministry said 17 people were killed in the past 24 hours. The IDF said it would continue to operate from its current positions to neutralise any imminent danger and urged people to stay away from areas still under its control. In parts of Gaza City where Israeli troops have withdrawn, Hamas security forces were seen patrolling the streets wearing caps marked with the logo of Hamas’s Internal Security agency rather than standard police uniforms, the BBC noted.
Hamas leaders rejected any form of foreign oversight in Gaza, asserting that governance of the territory is solely a Palestinian matter. The BBC said Trump’s 20-point peace proposal outlines that Hamas will have no future political role in Gaza, which would be temporarily governed by Palestinian technocrats under a transitional administration overseen by a “Board of Peace” headed by Donald Trump and joined by former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair. According to the plan, authority would eventually transfer to the Palestinian Authority. Hamas said Gaza should benefit from Arab and international participation in reconstruction and development efforts, the BBC reported.
The BBC said thousands of Palestinians, many carrying what little they owned, were seen travelling north along Gaza’s battered coastal road as troops withdrew. Some walked more than 20 kilometres, appearing exhausted and malnourished. A schoolteacher named Alaa Saleh told the BBC that his journey was long and grueling, with no access to food or water. Wael Al-Najjar, another displaced resident, said he and his young son had slept on the pavement while waiting to continue north. “Even if my home is destroyed, I will put up a tent and return,” he told a BBC freelancer.
According to Mahmud Bassal, a spokesman for Gaza’s civil defence agency quoted by the BBC, about 200,000 people returned to northern Gaza on Friday. Videos circulating online showed large areas of destruction in Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan, Sabra, and Zeitoun neighbourhoods, where entire apartment blocks were flattened. Civil defence teams are still recovering bodies from the rubble, and aid agencies warn that food, water, and fuel remain critically scarce, the BBC said.
Families of Israeli hostages celebrated the ceasefire, though many expressed mixed feelings, the BBC reported. Uri Goren, who has campaigned since 2023 for the return of his cousin’s body, said he felt a “big sigh of relief” after the deal was announced but added that Hamas has admitted to not knowing the locations of all the hostages’ remains.
The conflict began after Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, which killed about 1,200 people and led to 251 hostages being taken. Since then, the Hamas-run health ministry says more than 67,000 Palestinians, including over 18,000 children, have been killed. The UN commission of inquiry and international experts have accused Israel of genocide, a charge Israel has dismissed as distorted and false, according to the BBC.
