“Gaza, with its great people and its resilience, will rise again to rebuild what the occupation has destroyed and continue on the path of steadfastness until the occupation is defeated,” Hamas said in a statement after the cease-fire.

Akadi joined the rest of the country earlier this week in watching the first release of hostages as part of the initial stage of the hostage deal.

The Rafah crossing has been shuttered for over eight months but is opening again as part of the cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas.

The rats and dogs scavenging amid the ruins of her neighborhood in northern Gaza make Manal Al-Harsh's return to her wrecked home even more miserable.

Crowds of spectators gathered around vehicles carrying hostages in southern Gaza on Thursday, raising fears the captives wouldn’t be released safely.

The stage-managed spectacle of Israeli hostages being released in Gaza serves political interests on both sides. Hamas’ assertions that it is still in power bolster the argument that Prime Minister Netanyahu still has a job to do.

Hamas freed eight more hostages, including five Thai nationals, in the third round of a swap outlined in the cease-fire deal with Israel.

The cease-fire has held despite a dispute earlier this week over the sequence in which the hostages were released.

More than 375,000 Palestinians have made their way back to homes in northern Gaza after 15 months on the run because of war.

Crowds of Palestinians fill Gaza’s main coastal road as they stream north. With their belongings on their backs, they smile, hug and sing, overjoyed at the prospect of returning home after more than a year of war.

Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at the return of Palestinian refugees to northern Gaza, a major victory for Rwandan -backed rebels in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and new Chinese artificial intelligence worries for the United States.