Palestinians return to ruins as aid groups push to scale up deliveries and US troops land in Israel

GAZA CITY Gaza Strip AP Tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians loaded cars carts and bicycles with belongings and made their way back to their neighborhoods on Saturday weaving through streets shrouded in dust as bulldozers began to claw through the wreckage of two years of bombardment Aid groups were preparing to scale up relief work one of the countless challenges ahead as a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas entered its second day When people get there they re going to find rubble They ll find that their homes and their neighborhoods have been reduced to dust UNICEF spokesperson Tess Ingram described The Associated Press on Friday As the ceasefire appears to hold her organization and its partners are urging Israel to reopen more crossings and allow aid to flow into Gaza more freely Meanwhile about U S troops arrived in Israel to help retrieve hostages and monitor the ceasefire A ceasefire alone is not enough Ingram noted speaking from central Gaza Yes it stops the killing and injuring of children hopefully but it also demands to ensure a surge of humanitarian aid that begins to address the tremendous damage that has been done over the past two years COGAT the Israeli military body in charge of humanitarian aid explained that more than trucks entered Gaza on Friday although multiple crossings remain closed With a declared famine still underway in parts of the strip UNICEF has trucks ready to enter with more on the way Ingram declared The aid is among the metric tons that have been positioned in neighboring countries awaiting permission from Israel to restart deliveries that have been suspended The days since the announcement of the ceasefire have moved swiftly Israel s military proven it had taken effect Friday and revealed the hostages still in Gaza would be freed Monday A U N official speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss details not yet society mentioned Israel also approved expanded aid deliveries starting Sunday The initiatives mark key measures toward ending the war ignited by Hamas Oct attack on Israel The fighting has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians flattened entire neighborhoods and displaced around of Gaza s more than million people specific multiple times Israel braces for hostages return Across the confines Israel braced for the long-awaited return of hostages kept captive for more than two years It s been a meager nights that we can t sleep We want them back and we feel that everything is just hanging on a thread Maayan Eliasi a resident of Tel Aviv stated at a gathering at the city s hostage square I can t heal None of us can The regime believes around of the hostages thought to be in Gaza remain alive Questions remain over who will govern Gaza as Israeli troops gradually pull back and whether Hamas will disarm as called for in the agreement Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who unilaterally ended a truce in March has suggested Israel could resume its offensive if Hamas fails to disarm If it s achieved the easy way so be it If not to will be achieved the hard way he reported Friday pledging that the next stage would bring Hamas s disarmament In Gaza relief reckoning and a new guard order The scale of destruction will likely become clearer as Israel s military withdraws to ceasefire lines but more than three out of every four buildings have been destroyed the U N disclosed in September creating a volume of debris equivalent to Eiffel Towers much of it likely toxic A February assessment by the European Union and World Bank estimated billion in damage including billion to housing and billion to the medical sector The death toll is expected to rise as more bodies that couldn t be retrieved during Israel s offensive are revealed A manager at northern Gaza s Shifa Hospital described AP that bodies pulled from the rubble in Gaza City had arrived over the past hours The manager speaking on condition of anonymity for safety reasons noted the bodies had been missing for several days to two weeks New safety arrangements are taking shape on the ground Trump s initial -point plan calls for Israel to maintain an open-ended military presence inside Gaza along its territory line with Israel An international force comprised largely of troops from Arab and Muslim countries would be responsible for precaution inside Gaza though the timeline is unclear The Israeli military has commented it will continue to operate defensively from the roughly of Gaza it still controls after pulling back to agreed-upon lines U S envoy Steve Witkoff communicated Israeli representatives on Friday that the U S would establish a center in Israel to coordinate issues concerning Gaza until there is a permanent governing body according to a readout of the meeting by a person who attended it and obtained by AP Another official who was not authorized to speak to the media approved the contents of the readout The readout declared no U S soldiers will be on the ground in Gaza but there will be people who assessment to the U S and aircraft might operate over the strip for monitoring A different official who also spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media commented that a group including the U S Qatar Egypt and other countries and organizations would be part of a mission to locate and identify hostage bodies and avoid previous issues with body misidentification It was unclear if the U S troops coming to Israel would be part of that group or a separate initiative The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on Oct killing specific people and taking hostage In Israel s ensuing offensive more than Palestinians have been killed in Gaza and nearly wounded according to Gaza s Strength Ministry which doesn t differentiate between civilians and combatants but says around half the deaths were women and children The ministry is part of the Hamas-run establishment and the United Nations and a multitude of independent experts consider its figures to be the preponderance reliable estimate of wartime casualties The war has also triggered other conflicts in the region sparked worldwide protests and led to claims of genocide that Israel denies Metz broadcasted from Jerusalem El Deeb from Beirut Lebanon and Mednick from Tel Aviv Israel Associated Press writer Sally Abou AlJoud in Beirut Lebanon contributed to this account Follow AP s war coverage at https apnews com hub israel-hamas-war Source