Palestinians find Gaza City in ruins; Trump to chair peace summit in Egypt

GAZA – Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians returned to a devastated Gaza City on Oct 11, as Hamas prepared to release Israeli hostages and US President Donald Trump readied to chair an international summit on his peace plan for the region.

Mr Trump and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi will chair the summit of more than 20 countries in the resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Oct 13 afternoon, the Egyptian presidency said.

The meeting will aim “to end the war in the Gaza Strip, enhance efforts to achieve peace and stability in the Middle East, and usher in a new era of regional security and stability”, it said.

A day after the guns fell silent, Mr Trump’s Middle East envoy promised Israeli hostage families their loved ones would return, and the region’s top US general visited Gaza.

“Your courage has moved the world,” Mr Steve Witkoff told the families and huge crowd in Tel Aviv. “To the hostages themselves: You are coming home,” he declared, as Israelis chanted “Thank you, Trump”.

Shortly afterwards, senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan said “the prisoner exchange is set to begin on Oct 13 morning as agreed”.

Israel and Hamas are to release hostages and prisoners, two years after the Palestinian militant group’s Oct 7, 2023, attack triggered a counter-offensive that killed more than 67,000 Palestinians.

But mediators still have to secure a longer-term political solution that will see Hamas hand in its weapons and step aside from governing Gaza.

In an interview with AFP in Qatar, Mr Hossam Badran, a member of Hamas’ political bureau, warned that the second phase of Mr Trump’s plan “contains many complexities and difficulties”.

Hamas, he said, would not attend the formal signing of the Gaza peace deal in Egypt.

Hamas is resisting calls to disarm. An official from the group, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP that it was “out of the question”.

Multinational force

On Oct 11, US Central Command chief Brad Cooper, Mr Witkoff and Mr Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner visited Gaza.

Mr Witkoff, Mr Kushner and Mr Trump’s daughter Ivanka then went on to Tel Aviv
to attend a vigil with the families of the remaining Israeli hostages held in Gaza.

Mrs Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan is one of about 20 hostages believed to still be alive, said: “We will continue to shout and fight until everyone is home.”

Hamas has until noon on Oct 13 to hand over 47 remaining Israeli hostages – living and dead – from the 251 abducted two years ago.

The remains of one more hostage, held in Gaza since 2014, are also expected to be returned.

In exchange, Israel will release 250 prisoners, including some of those serving life sentences for deadly anti-Israeli attacks, and 1,700 Gazans detained by the military since the war broke out.

The Israeli prison service said on Oct 11 it had moved the 250 national security detainees
to the prisons of Ofer, in the occupied West Bank, and Ketziot in southern Israel’s Negev desert, ahead of the handover.

‘Stood and cried’

According to Gaza’s civil defence agency, a rescue service operating under Hamas authority, more than 500,000 Palestinians had returned to Gaza City by Oct 11 evening.

“We walked for hours, and every step was filled with fear and anxiety for my home,” Ms Raja Salmi, 52, told AFP.

When she reached the Al-Rimal neighbourhood, she found her house utterly destroyed.

“I stood before it and cried. All those memories are now just dust,” she said.

Drone footage shot by AFP showed whole city blocks reduced to a twisted mess of concrete and steel reinforcing wire.

The walls and windows of five-storey apartment blocks had been torn off and now lie choking the roadsides as disconsolate residents poke through the rubble.

The United Nations humanitarian office says Israel has allowed agencies to start transporting 170,000 tonnes of aid into Gaza if the ceasefire holds.

‘Ghost town’

Men, women and children navigated streets filled with rubble, searching for homes amid collapsed concrete slabs, destroyed vehicles and debris.

While some returned in vehicles, most walked, carrying belongings in bags strapped to their shoulders.

Mr Sami Musa, 28, returned alone to check on his family’s house.

“Thank God... I found that our home is still standing,” Mr Musa told AFP.

“It felt like a ghost town, not Gaza,” he said. “The smell of death still lingers in the air.”

Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed at least 67,682 people, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run territory, figures the United Nations considers credible.

The data does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but indicates that more than half of the dead are women and children.

The war was sparked by Hamas’ Oct 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. AFP