Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians streamed into Gaza’s most heavily destroyed area on Monday after Israel opened the north for the first time since the early weeks of the war with Hamas, a dramatic reversal of their exodus 15 months ago. As the fragile ceasefire held into a second week, Israel was informed by Hamas that eight of the hostages to be freed during the deal's first phase are dead. Joyous crowds of Palestinians, some holding babies or pushing wheelchairs, walked along a seaside road all day and into the night, carrying bedrolls, bottles of water and other belongings. A few armed, masked Hamas fighters flashed a victory sign. The crowd was watched over by Israeli tanks on a nearby hill. The United Nations said over 200,000 people were observed moving north in Gaza on Monday morning alone. Israel bars thousands of Palestinians from northern Gaza over ceasefire dispute Palestinians who have been sheltering in squalid tent camps and former schools are eager to return to their homes — even though they are likely damaged or destroyed. Many had feared that Israel would make their displacement permanent. Yasmin Abu Amshah, a mother of three, said she walked 6 kilometers (nearly 4 miles) to reach her damaged but habitable Gaza City home. She saw her younger sister for the first time in over a year. “It was a long trip, but a happy one,” she said. Many saw their return as an act of steadfastness after Israel’s military campaign, launched in response to the Hamas militant group's Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel. The return was also seen as a repudiation of US President Donald Trump’s suggestion that many Palestinians be resettled in Egypt and Jordan, which those countries have rejected.

Israeli strikes on northern Gaza have killed at least 22 people, Palestinian medical officials said. The Gaza Health Ministry’s emergency service said that 11 women and two children were among those killed in the strikes late Saturday on several homes and buildings in the northern town of Beit Lahiya. It said another 15 people were wounded and that the death toll could rise. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. Israel has been waging a massive air and ground offensive in northern Gaza for the last three weeks, after saying that Hamas militants had regrouped there. Hundreds of people have been killed and tens of thousands of Palestinians have fled to Gaza City in the latest wave of displacement in the yearlong war. Israel is still carrying out daily strikes across Gaza, even as it wages war with the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon. On Saturday, Israeli warplanes attacked Iran — which backs both Hamas and Hezbollah — in response to an Iranian ballistic missile attack earlier this month. The cascading conflicts have raised fears of an all-out regional war pitting Israel and the United States against Iran and its militant proxies, which also include the Houthi rebels in Yemen and armed groups in Syria and Iraq. Suicide attack kills 4 security personnel in northwest Pakistan Israel says its strikes on Gaza only target militants, and it blames Hamas for civilian casualties because the militants fight in densely populated areas. The military rarely comments on individual strikes, which often kill women and children. The war began when Hamas-led militants blew holes in Israel's border wall and stormed into southern Israel in a surprise attack on Oct. 7, 2023. They killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250. Some 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, around a third of whom are believed to be dead. Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians, according to the local Health Ministry. It does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count but says more than half of those killed were women and children. The offensive has devastated much of the impoverished coastal territory and displaced around 90% of its population, often multiple times. Hundreds of thousands of people have crowded into squalid tent camps along the coast, and aid groups say hunger is rampant.