Militants led Israeli hostage Arbel Yehoud through a chaotic crowd in Gaza ahead of her release, hours after Hamas handed a captive Israeli soldier over to the Red Cross in the Gaza Strip.

Thousands of Palestinians have returned to northern Gaza for the second day, walking kilometres to reach home.

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

My mother, father, and brothers are all buried in one grave,” 12-year-old Alma Ja’arour said. "There is no home to return to, no one waiting for me.”

Qudra, her father and her brother were killed by shrapnel from an Israeli airstrike shortly after the ceasefire was supposed to go into effect.

Nedal Hamdouna, a Palestinian journalist, has been displaced seven times by the 15-month war in Gaza. Here, he describes the joy he felt in being able to return to Beit Lahia in the north of the strip

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​.

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

A small U.S. security firm is hiring nearly 100 U.S. special forces veterans to help run a checkpoint in Gaza during the Israel-Hamas truce, according to a company spokesperson and a recruitment email seen by Reuters,

Tens of thousands of Palestinians streamed into the most heavily destroyed part of the Gaza Strip on Monday as Israel lifted its closure of the north for the first time since the early weeks of the 15-month war with Hamas in accordance with a fragile ceasefire.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians are streaming into Gaza's most heavily destroyed area after Israel lifted its closure of the north.