Palestinians search under rubble in Gaza, Hamas emerges from hiding

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“It was a big shock, and the amount (of people) feeling shocked is countless because of what happened to their homes – it’s destruction, total destruction. It’s not like an earthquake or a flood, no no, what happened is a war of extermination,” he said.

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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 Strip.

The deal requires 600 truckloads of aid to be allowed into Gaza every day of the initial six-week ceasefire, including 50 carrying fuel. Half of the aid trucks would be delivered to the north, where experts have warned famine is imminent.

Residents and medics in Gaza said that for the most part the ceasefire appeared to be holding, although there were isolated incidents. Medics said eight people had been hit by Israeli fire since Monday morning in the southern city of Rafah, without giving details of their condition.

One of the Israeli women hostages released on Sunday, Emily Damari, posted a message on Instagram on Monday.

“I have returned to life, my loved ones,” she wrote, “I am the happiest in the world, to just be,” said Damari, a British-Israeli citizen.

In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where most of the freed Palestinian detainees returned, Nidaa Zaghebi was finally able to embrace her three children who she had left behind after her arrest by Israeli forces.

Zaghebi’s daughters Sadan and Cilla were in tears as they hugged their mother when she arrived at their home, wearing a crown of flowers and wrapped in a traditional Palestinian scarf.

Friends reach out to British-Israeli hostage Emily Damari as she arrives at Sheba Medical Centre where hostages are arriving after the first phase of a ceasefire agreement began between Israel and Hamas in Ramat Gan, Israel. Credit: Getty Images

“I used to dream of them every night, and imagine what they were doing. I know the family here were very supportive and took good care of them, but motherhood overcomes all other feelings,” she told Reuters.

As a ceasefire brought calm to Gaza’s ruined cities, Hamas was quick to emerge from hiding.

The militant group has not only survived 15 months of war with Israel — among the deadliest and most destructive in recent memory — but it remains firmly in control of the coastal territory that now resembles an apocalyptic wasteland. With a surge of humanitarian aid promised as part of the ceasefire deal, the Hamas-run government said Monday that it will coordinate distribution to the desperate people of Gaza.

For all the military might Israel deployed in Gaza, it failed to remove Hamas from power, one of its central war aims. That could make a return to fighting more likely, but the results might be the same.

Dunya Shtayyeh, centre, a former Palestinian prisoner who was released from an Israeli prison as part of a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas, is greeted by friends and family members in the West Bank village of Salem.

Dunya Shtayyeh, centre, a former Palestinian prisoner who was released from an Israeli prison as part of a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas, is greeted by friends and family members in the West Bank village of Salem.Credit: AP

There was an element of theatre in Sunday’s handover of three Israeli hostages to the Red Cross, when dozens of masked Hamas fighters wearing green headbands and military fatigues paraded in front of cameras and held back a crowd of hundreds who surrounded the vehicles.

The scenes elsewhere in Gaza were even more remarkable: Thousands of Hamas-run police in uniform re-emerged, making their presence known even in the most heavily destroyed areas.

“The police have been here the whole time, but they were not wearing their uniforms” to avoid being targeted by Israel, said Mohammed Abed, a father of three who returned to his home in Gaza City more than seven months after fleeing the area.

“They were among the displaced people in the tents. That’s why there were no thefts,” he said.

An aerial photograph taken by a drone shows displaced Palestinians returning to Rafah, a day after the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas came into effect, Gaza Strip.

An aerial photograph taken by a drone shows displaced Palestinians returning to Rafah, a day after the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas came into effect, Gaza Strip.Credit: AP

Other residents said the police had maintained offices in hospitals and other locations throughout the war, where people could report crimes.

Israel has repeatedly blamed Hamas for the heavy civilian death toll and damage to infrastructure because the group’s fighters and security forces embed themselves in residential neighbourhoods, schools and hospitals.

Opinion polls consistently show that only a minority of Palestinians support Hamas. But the Islamic militant group — which does not accept Israel’s existence — is deeply rooted in Palestinian society, with an armed wing, a political party, media and charities that date back to its founding in the late 1980s.

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