Israel says it has completed a pullback of troops in Gaza : NPR

Palestinians look towards Gaza City from Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip on Friday. Gaza’s civil defense agency said Friday that Israeli forces had begun to withdraw from parts of the territory, including Gaza City and Khan Younis.

Eyad Baba/Getty Images

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Eyad Baba/Getty Images

Israeli forces completed the withdrawal of their troops from Gaza on Friday after the Israeli cabinet approved a ceasefire plan aimed at ending the devastating two-year war.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a brief statement Friday that the Cabinet had approved the “outline” of a deal to free the hostages – a key part of the original deal.

“The government has now approved the framework for the release of all hostages, living and deceased,” the statement said. He did not detail other, more controversial parts of the deal reached Wednesday.

Hamas held 20 hostages alive and the bodies of 26 others, while the fate of two others is unknown. The handover of the living hostages is expected to begin on Monday.

Israel has pledged to release around 250 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, including women and children, as well as around 1,700 Palestinians detained in Gaza since the start of the war, according to Hamas officials.

Many were detained without charge. Most prisoners held in Israel are expected to be deported and not allowed to return to their homes in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Israeli forces began withdrawing from the coastal road leading to Gaza City overnight after the Cabinet approved the ceasefire, which requires troops to withdraw to a buffer zone.

Israel’s official log of Cabinet decisions says the ceasefire began as soon as the Cabinet approved the agreement Friday night.

Palestinian residents gather near Gaza City hoping to return to their damaged and destroyed homes.

“I feel reborn,” said Mohammad Rajab, 33, who said the Israeli army was so far preventing people from returning. “Despite all the sadness and the enormous destruction, we look forward and think about how we are going to build our lives, our future, the future of our children, and rebuild everything that has been destroyed and move away from the war.”

“Israel has no goals to achieve and the Palestinians have nothing left to lose,” he said.

In the southern Gaza Strip, tank shelling was heard and smoke rose Friday morning in Khan Younis, residents said. It was unclear whether any attacks fell within the limits of the ceasefire agreement following the Israeli withdrawal.

The war, sparked two years ago by Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, has killed at least 67,000 Palestinians, many of them women and children, in Israeli attacks.

Around 1,200 Israelis and foreigners were killed in the October 7 attack.

An independent UN commission determined last month that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza. Israel rejects this characterization.

The war also triggered dramatic power shifts in the region, notably weakening Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon and contributing to the overthrow of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.

It also deepened Israel’s international isolation and made Israel and President Trump’s goal of more Arab countries normalizing relations with the Jewish state less achievable.

The ceasefire announced Wednesday still leaves questions over who will govern Gaza, how to rebuild the devastated Palestinian territory and whether Hamas will keep its weapons.

Two senior U.S. officials who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity said the United States would provide about 200 troops as part of a multinational effort to support and monitor the ceasefire agreement. They said the US Central Command would establish a civil-military coordination center that would also be involved in the movement of humanitarian aid.

The United States would coordinate with Israeli forces and no American troops would be sent to Gaza.

Other countries contributing troops are expected to include Egypt, Qatar, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

President Trump is expected to visit the region this weekend. The Israeli Knesset formally invited him to address the gathering – the first such speech by a US president since 2008.

A key part of the ceasefire agreement would allow food and medicine to arrive in Gaza. International experts said this year that famine reigned in the Palestinian enclave due to Israeli restrictions on aid.

Other countries have expressed support for the ceasefire and willingness to help.

The European Union’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, said an EU humanitarian team was ready at Egypt’s now-closed Rafah border crossing with Gaza to facilitate the movement of aid. He said the EU assistance mission to the Palestinian Authority police in the West Bank could also support a “stabilization force” in Gaza.

Anas Baba contributed reporting from Gaza.