Israel-Hamas war live: Displaced in Gaza find destroyed homes upon return

We are awaiting the release of a further Palestinian prisoners in Israel and captives being held in Gaza. It’s expected to be completed within the coming hours.

Here’s what to know:

• Between 39 and 42 Palestinians held in Israeli jails are expected to be freed today.
• Fourteen captives held in Gaza are also expected to be handed to the Red Cross as part of their transfer to Israel.
• The exact timing of the releases is not yet clear.
• Yesterday, 39 Palestinian prisoners and 13 Israeli captives were released under the truce agreement.
• Hamas also released an additional 10 Thai nationals and one Philippine citizen outside the framework of that deal.
  

Shoppers have flooded the Nuseirat market in the central Gaza Strip on the second day of the truce in order to secure much-needed food supplies.

Photojournalist Attia Darwish captured the scenes in this video verified by Al Jazeera:

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said on social media that it had delivered a convoy of 61 trucks carrying aid assistance to “Gaza [City] and the North governates”, calling it the largest such delivery since the war began on October 7.

The Gaza Strip is divided into five governorates: North Gaza, Gaza City, Deir el-Balah, Khan Younis and Rafah.

The trucks were “loaded with food and non-food items, water, primary health care medicines, and emergency medical supplies,” the PRCS said on X.

As part of the four-day truce deal between Hamas and Israel, 137 aid trucks entered Gaza on Friday.

However, aid agencies say much more is needed to assist the 2.3 million people living in the besieged enclave, calling the conditions on the ground “catastrophic”.

Here is a summary of the humanitarian situation in Gaza:

• More than 1.7 million people have been forcibly displaced.
• Many are seeking safety in UN schools and shelters, which are experiencing severe overcrowding.
• The United Nations says some 2.2 million people need food assistance to survive.
• More than 44,000 cases of diarrhoea and 70,000 cases of respiratory infections have been reported.
  

Sultan Barakat, professor of Public Policy at Hamad Bin Khalifa University, told Al Jazeera that one thing learned from the first day of the temporary pause in fighting is that much of what was accomplished could have been “achieved without having to kill 14,000 people”.

“And that’s lesson number one. They could have talked … and they could have resolved these issues without having to unleash this whole damage on Gaza,” he said, adding that from the beginning of the war, Hamas said they were willing to release captives in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.

Another lesson from the truce, Barakat said, is that it showed the similarities between captives taken by Hamas and Palestinian prisoners in Israel.

Israel has “now released 17 minors, in Israel’s definition, children, that were captured by Israel over the last couple of years without going on trial. What’s the difference between them and other children being taken hostages [by Hamas]?” he said.

The third lesson learned, according to Barakat, is that the exchange has highlighted that none of the prisoners released by Israel were “necessarily associated directly with Hamas”.

“None of these people released by Israel have been caught after the 7th of October. They’re all a long-term issue in relation to the occupation,” he said.

“And I think what Hamas is also trying to score here is that most of them are returning to the West Bank. None of them is returning to territories that are under control of Hamas.”

Dozens of people have gathered outside the office of Australian Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles in Geelong to protest against the government’s stance on Israel’s war on Gaza.

The protesters wrote  “Shame on you” on the exterior wall of the office, where they also placed the Palestinian flag.

Australia’s centre-left Labor government, led by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, has been opposing calls for a ceasefire. Meanwhile earlier this month, Palestinian and Australian human rights organisations launched a legal challenge in Australia’s high court seeking to shed light on the country’s shadowy arms trade.

Jordanian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ayman Safadi says “security will only be achieved” by settling the conflict and the two-state solution.

“Israel will not enjoy security by killing the Palestinians,” he said during a joint news conference with his Portuguese and Slovenian counterparts, Joao Gomez Cravinho, and Tanja Fajon. “This year is considered the bloodiest for Palestinians in more than 10 years,” Safadi added.

He said at the upcoming UN Security Council meeting on Wednesday, the Arab-Islamic Liaison Committee will press for a permanent ceasefire.

“Israel attacks anyone who does not agree with its policy, and it cannot remain above international law. We all want this truce to turn into a permanent ceasefire and a complete end to this aggression,” Safadi added.

“If this decision is not taken, the Security Council is responsible for perpetuating this barbarity represented by the Israeli aggression against our people in Gaza.”

Israel started its war on Gaza with $200bn in reserves and billions in military aid from the United States.

But spending is skyrocketing, revenues are falling and borrowing costs are increasing.

Israel’s central bank says the war has proven to be more costly than initially estimated. Many analysts expect the economic impact will be unlike anything Israel has experienced in decades.

Aed Yaghi, director of the Palestinian Medical Relief Society, says the four-day truce in the Gaza Strip is not enough to deal with the many challenges facing the people living in the enclave.

“The situation is too difficult. We are speaking about 1.6 million Palestinians in the south. The shelters are too crowded. It is not enough for even 10 percent of these people,” he told Al Jazeera from Khan Younis.

“There is no clean water or proper sanitation.”

Moreover, Yaghi said the aid group had lost contact with its staff in northern Gaza, where much of the fighting has taken place. “We are worried about the safety of our teams.”

It’s still unclear exactly what time the release of Palestinian prisoners will happen.

In the last hour, we’ve also received information that makes it perhaps unclear what the figure will be.

We’ve been hearing that 42 people, including 24 children and 18 women, will be released but speaking to Palestinian organisations, now we hear that the number may only be 39 again today.

Everything is very fluid and last minute.

It’s past 1pm local time (11:00 GMT) in the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel. If you’re just joining us, here’s a recap of the latest developments in the past few hours:

• Egypt says it has received a list from Hamas of 14 captives to be released later today from Gaza.
• Forty-two Palestinians held in Israeli jails, including 18 women and 24 teenage boys, are also expected to be freed under the deal.
• Israeli forces have killed a 25-year-old Palestinian and wounded two others in a raid on Qabatiya, occupied West Bank.
• For the first time since October 7, humanitarian aid is being distributed in northern Gaza.
• The Israeli military said it’s “moving forward” with questioning al-Shifa Hospital director Muhammad Abu Salmiya.
  

  

Al Jazeera’s Hisham Zaqout also spoke to another resident of the camp, who had just returned to see the condition of his home.

“Honestly, I never imagined the scale of destruction; not even one percent of it,” the young man said.

“My home was shelled. It suffered damages and is not fit to live in any more. It must be rebuilt all over again,” he added.

When asked how he could stay there again, he responded that it’s best to live in a house without walls “than get humiliated in overcrowded UN schools”.

“We drink seawater and pretend it is freshwater. What can we do?”

Our colleague Hisham Zaqout visited the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza where he spoke to several Palestinians who used the pause in fighting to return to their neighbourhoods – only to find utter destruction.

“Our home is destroyed, nothing remains standing. And most of the ducks and chickens were eaten by hungry street dogs,” an elderly woman said.

“This is not a war; it is a genocide,” she added. “It’s unprecedented crimes.”

Zaqout said many residents of the Bureij refugee camp had been forced to head to Nuseirat refugee camp, further west, due to intense uninterrupted shelling.

Upon returning, they found their homes levelled to the ground and some of the dead buried under the debris. The elderly woman said she used to “come every now and then, despite the ruthless shelling”.

She continued: “It was very dangerous, but I have to come and check on my chicken livestock. I am not afraid. If I am destined to be killed, I will die. My life is not in the hands of the Zionists.”

Seventeen Palestinians have been arrested by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank since yesterday evening and until this morning, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Club.

According to the rights group, the total number of Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons since October 7 is now 3,160.

The 17 arrests come after the release of 39 Palestinian prisoners on Friday as part of the four-day truce between Israel and Hamas.