Crowds of Palestinians fill Gaza’s main coastal road as they stream north. With their belongings on their backs, they smile, hug and sing, overjoyed at the prospect of returning home after more than a year of war.

By OSAMA SALEH, WAFAA SHURAFA and SAMY MAGDY GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians streamed into Gaza’s most heavily destroyed area on Monday after Israel

After a ceasefire deal paused 15 months of war in Gaza, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians returned to the rubble of their homes.

Hamas began the process of freeing three more Israeli hostages and five Thai captives on Thursday, the third such release since a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip took hold earlier this month. Israel was expected to release another 110 Palestinian prisoners.

With a ceasefire agreement pausing the war between Israel and Hamas, Israeli troops have withdrawn from Gaza city centers. For the first time in eight months, NPR got a glimpse of Rafah this week.

Thousands of Palestinians are returning to the northern Gaza Strip Monday as part of the cease-fire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas.

Tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians began returning home to northern Gaza on Monday, bracing for what awaits them in a region that has been reduced to rubble by months of brutal bombardment and fighting.

Despite the extreme hardships they have experienced and the long road ahead, children in Gaza are holding fast to their dreams of a better future.

Trump also said he's ended his predecessor’s hold on sending 2,000-pound bombs to Israel, which Biden had implemented out of concern for civilian casualties in Gaza.

Palestinians are eager to return to their homes — even knowing that they have likely been damaged or destroyed.

Israel is letting thousands of Palestinians return to northern Gaza for the first time since the early weeks of the war with Hamas​, as a fragile ceasefire endures​.