After a first night in Gaza without the sound of drones or bombings following a successful ceasefire, people across the besieged Palestinian territory began returning to their destroyed homes in search of missing relatives.

On Sunday, the first three hostages held by Hamas were released in exchange for 90 Palestinians in Israeli jails and a ceasefire came into effect, prompting cheers as a flood of much-needed aid poured into the strip.

By Monday, however, the celebrations had largely turned to shock and sadness as the region's 2.3 million people began to take stock of the scale of destruction caused by Israel in retaliation for the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack.

In Israel, joy at the safe return of three hostages was tempered by anger and surprise at Hamas's show of force at the handover of the hostages after 15 months of grueling fighting.

A column in the Times of Israel stated, “When dozens of Hamas gunmen, cheered by a large cheering crowd, occupied Gaza City’s Salaya Square, they staged a frenzied, self-defeating massacre in front of a global audience. The people of the whole country were very frightened when they boasted of the daytime ritual."

On Sunday night, Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank opposed the deal and tried to block the entrance to the Palestinian city of Ramallah ahead of the return of 90 women and children held in Israeli jails.

Overnight, Israeli extremists set fire to houses and cars in three West Bank villages. The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement that they acted "quickly" to disperse the rioters and arrested two people, a claim disputed by rights group Yesh Din.

It remains to be seen whether the first phase of the six-week ceasefire will last amid sporadic reports of violence on Monday, including what medics said was the shooting dead of eight people by Israeli forces in the Rafah area. The Israeli military said it was verifying the reports.

Gaza is still bisected by the Nezarim Corridor that Israel installed beneath Gaza City, and Israeli troops are not expected to begin withdrawing from the area until the seventh day of the truce. However, in northern and southern Gaza, displaced civilians began trekking back to their towns, villages and refugee camps on foot or in donkey carts along roads littered with unexploded ordnance.

Yusuf, 22, from the northern city of Beit Lahiya, returned home from Gaza City on Monday after losing his parents and brother in the war.

"When I arrived in Beit Lahiya, my first feeling was shock and panic at the terror and rubble. It was as if a nine-magnitude earthquake had hit my city... There were no streets, no shops, no parks , there is no market, no hospital and no municipality, nothing but rubble with some bodies around and underneath it," he said.

He later returned to Gaza City. "I plan to come back only if there is an environment for human habitation... water, food, medical services and infrastructure so that we can start our lives again," he said.

Civil protection authorities said on Monday that formal searches were underway for about 10,000 missing people. Despite the ceasefire, the death toll in Gaza continues to rise: medics reported the discovery of 62 bodies in the past 24 hours, taking the death toll to 47,000. The World Health Organization (WHO) said another 110,000 people were injured, a quarter of whom faced life-changing injuries, and 12,000 people needed to be evacuated elsewhere for emergency treatment.

Hamas attacks in October 2023 killed approximately 1,200 people and took 250 hostage.

Umm Saber, a 48-year-old widow and mother of six who successfully returned to Beit Lahia on Sunday, told The Associated Press she saw several bodies on the road, including Some of the bodies appeared to have been lying out in the open. weeks.

Her home was completely gone, she said, adding that neighbors had begun digging through the rubble in search of missing relatives believed to be buried in the rubble of Israeli airstrikes. Others tried to clear enough space to set up tents.

The local Kamal Adwan Hospital was also "completely destroyed," she said. "This is no longer a hospital at all... They destroyed everything."

Temporary aid arrived in the form of humanitarian supplies, with 630 trucks entering the zone almost immediately after the ceasefire came into effect at 11:15 am (0915 GMT) on Sunday. About half of the cargo is destined for northern Gaza, an area that Israel has almost completely cut off from the outside world.

Israel denies deliberately choking aid flows to the Palestinian territories, accusing aid agencies of delays and claiming Hamas is cutting off aid.

The average number of trucks entering the area per day has dropped to 18, leading aid agencies to warn that nine out of 10 people do not have access to enough food. The United Nations says the number of trucks needed to contain the humanitarian crisis in the strip is at least 500 per day, and should arrive every day during the first six weeks of the ceasefire.

But David Miliband, chairman of the International Rescue Committee, said on Monday that an increase in aid could take some time, citing previous problems with looting and security threats by armed gangs.

Long-term issues regarding the reconstruction and governance of the strip should be resolved in negotiations scheduled to begin in early February, before the first phase of the ceasefire expires in early March.

According to a UN damage assessment earlier this month, clearing the more than 50 million tonnes of rubble left by the Israeli bombing could take 21 years and cost up to $1.2bn (£980m). The World Health Organization says it will cost $10 million to restore Gaza's damaged medical infrastructure, as only half of the Strip's 36 hospitals are still partially operational.