Thousands of displaced Palestinians trekked over the wastelands of Gaza to return to the ruins of their abandoned homes on Friday, after a ceasefire took effect and Israeli troops began pulling back under the agreement to end the war.

A huge column of people filed on foot north along the coastal road overlooking sandy beaches towards Gaza City, the enclave’s biggest urban area, which had been under attack just days ago in one of Israel’s biggest offensives of the war.

“Thank God my house is still standing,” Ismail Zayda, 40, said in the Sheikh Radwan district of Gaza City. “But the place is destroyed, my neighbours’ houses are destroyed, entire districts have gone.”

In the south, people picked their way through the dusty moonscape that was once Gaza’s second largest city, Khan Younis, which Israeli forces had razed earlier this year. Most walked in silence. A boy teetered under a foam mattress.

A middle-aged man, Ahmed al-Brim, was pushing a bicycle with bundles of scrap timber tied to the front and back: his family would need the firewood to cook. It was all they had been able to recover from the ruins of their home.

“We went to our area. It was exterminated. We don’t know where we will go after that,” he said. “We couldn’t get the furniture, or clothes, or anything, not even winter clothes. Nothing is left.”

Netanyahu: Hamas must disarm ‘the easy way’ or ‘the hard way’

The Israeli military said the ceasefire agreement had been activated at noon local time (0900 GMT).

The first phase of US President Donald Trump’s plan to end the war between Israel and the Hamas militant group gives Israeli troops 24 hours to pull from positions in urban areas, although they will still hold more than half of Gaza.

In a televised address, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli forces were staying in Gaza to ensure Hamas was disarmed: “If this is achieved the easy way, then that will be good, and if not, then it will be achieved the hard way.”

As the day wore on and it became clear that troops were no longer blocking the roads into cities, an initial trickle turned into a flood of Palestinians returning from makeshift tented camps to the homes they had left behind.

Mahdi Saqla, 40, said his family had decided to set off north towards Gaza City as soon as they heard the news of the ceasefire.

“Of course, there are no homes — they’ve been destroyed,” he said. “But we are happy just to return to where our homes were, even over the rubble. That too is a great joy. For two years, we’ve been suffering, displaced from place to place.”

Israel’s government ratified the ceasefire with Hamas in the early hours of Friday. Once Israeli troops have pulled back, Hamas has 72 hours to release the 20 living Israeli hostages it is still holding.

Israel will free 250 Palestinians serving long terms in its prisons and 1,700 detainees captured during the war. Hundreds of trucks per day are expected to surge into Gaza carrying food and medical aid.

Israeli military spokesperson Brigadier General Effie Defrin urged residents of Gaza to avoid entering areas under Israeli military control: “Keep to the agreement and ensure your safety,” he said on Friday.