Rarely seen in the open while the war raged, masked and armed fighters spread out publicly through Gaza’s cities in a show of force on Sunday.

A ceasefire in the Gaza Strip has taken effect following an almost three-hour delay after Hamas was late to name the three hostage it plans to release. The announcement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the ceasefire began at 11:15 a.

Three Israeli hostages released from Gaza have been handed over to Israeli forces there in the first test of a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

The Israel-Hamas war has devastated the Gaza Strip. Satellite photos offer some sense of the destruction in the territory.

The UN has said that people in Gaza are “effectively starving.” Before the war, the territory was “largely self-sufficient” in fresh produce, it added. But Israel’s mili

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Even before the ceasefire officially took effect, many Palestinians moved through the wreckage to reach their homes, some on foot and others hauling their belongings on donkey carts.

The three women are being accompanied by IDF special forces as they return to Israeli territory. They will then undergo an initial medical assessment. One of the hostages is shown walking between the vehicles during a chaotic handover.

The truce, which started at 11:15 a.m. local time, is just the first step toward ultimately ending the conflict and returning nearly 100 hostages abducted in Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack.

The agreement is set to halt a 15-month-old war between Israel and Hamas that has decimated the Strip, killed nearly 47,000 Palestinians and 1,200 Israelis, and destabilised the Middle East.

A visual guide to how much has changed in the Gaza Strip since Israel began its military response to Hamas's attacks on 7 October.