Image source, Reuters

Palestinians have been returning to their homes in the north of the Gaza Strip as the Israeli military says it has completed the first phase of its withdrawal from the territory.

Here's the latest:

• A "large-scale logistical operation" was carried out "to adjust the deployment of IDF troops in Gaza", an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson says
• Photos show armed Hamas security forces in the streets of Gaza in the areas from which Israel has withdrawn
• They are filling a security vacuum because the details of who will run Gaza still haven’t been decided, writes Barbara Plett Usher
• Israel has published a list of the 250 Palestinian prisoners it will release, but Hamas is pushing for more to be freed
• Meanwhile, a 72-hour countdown to release all 48 remaining Israeli hostages from Gaza has started – Hamas has until 12:00 local time on Monday to release them all (10:00 BST)
• UN aid agencies say they are ready to flood Gaza with aid, but it remains unclear just how involved they will be

We are bringing our coverage to a close now, but you can read more in our news story.

And there's plenty more across the BBC. You can read about the remaining hostages still being held by Hamas, and North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher explains how President Trump secured the breakthrough in Gaza.

We also have an explainer on what we know about the ceasefire agreement - and what happens next, and our international editor Jeremy Bowen says there's now a realistic chance of ending the war - but it's not over yet.

Image source, The Hostages and Missing Families Forum

Under the ceasefire deal, Hamas is expected to release all 48 Israeli and foreign hostages it currently holds - 20 of whom are assumed to still be alive.

Among those are Gali and Ziv Berman. The 28-year-old twin brothers were abducted from Kibbutz Kfar Aza with their neighbour, Emily Damari. Ziv was held with Emily for 40 days before they were separated. She was released in January 2025 during the last ceasefire. Gali and Ziv's family said they had been informed by other hostages released in early 2025 that they were still alive.

A number of the remaining hostages are believed to have died. That includes Guy Illouz, 26, who was shot twice during the attack on the Nova festival on 7 October 2023 and died of his wounds after being taken hostage, his family said. Released hostages are said to have confirmed his death.

• You can read more about the hostages here

The ceasefire is "a wonderful thing in principle", one Gazan tells BBC Arabic's Middle East Daily.

"It has lifted our spirits a little, especially after we were all psychologically devastated by the war that went on for two whole years," says Um Mohammed, a resident of central Gaza.

But she adds: "We can no longer even feel joy, because so many martyrs and wounded have fallen. We have lost so many of our loved ones."

Another central Gaza resident, who hasn't provided her name, says she is also "trying to remain hopeful and begin rebuilding Gaza".

She adds: "What we truly hope for is that the fighting stops once and for all, and that we can live freely – so that even if our children are out late at night, we won't feel fear or worry for them. Right now, we don’t even allow them to go out after sunset."

Image source, EPA

Israel Police says Operation “Blue Shield 6" is being finalised ahead of Trump’s visit to the country on Monday, which will mobilise "thousands of police and Border Police officers".

In the operational update posted on X, the force says officers will be deployed "along key routes to ensure public safety, order, and smooth traffic flow during the state visit".

Image source, Getty Images

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says President Trump deserved to win the Nobel Peace Prize, which was won by Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado earlier today.

"The Nobel Committee talks about peace. President Trump makes it happen. The facts speak for themselves," he says in a post on X, adding that Trump “deserves” the prize.

Netanyahu was among the world leaders who had nominated the US president for the award. Nominations closed in January – the month Trump was inaugurated for his second term.

Nomia Iqbal
North America correspondent

US President Donald Trump is heading to Israel on Sunday. On Monday, he plans to address the Israeli parliament.

It will be somewhat of a victory lap for him.

He will be looking to put more pressure on the far right members of the government who are still pushing back on parts of the ceasefire.

We understand that he is not going to Gaza despite earlier talks he might.

There are so many unanswered questions - what happens to Gaza? Who governs Gaza? How do people rebuild their lives there?

The president is then expected to go to Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, where he has been invited by Egypt's president to take part in the official ceasefire signing.

Trump is an optics guy and he knows ultimately this is all about how it looks. It will be a moment for many pictures to be taken to record this moment in history.

Rushdi Abualouf
Gaza correspondent, reporting from Istanbul

As we’ve been reporting, the Israeli justice ministry published a list of 250 Palestinian prisoners it will release in exchange for Israeli hostages.

That list does not include seven high-profile Palestinian prisoners that Hamas had demanded as part of the exchange - including Marwan Barghouti and Ahmad Saadat, figures long seen by Palestinians as symbols of resistance.

A senior Palestinian official familiar with the talks told the BBC that US envoy Steve Witkoff had promised to raise their exclusion with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but Israel has firmly refused to include them.

The BBC understands that Hamas is also pushing for some possible additional prisoner releases. These relate to Palestinian prisoners who were released years ago as part of an exchange for the hostage Gilad Shalit - and then were rearrested after 7 October.

Hamas argues that since they were part of a previous hostage exchange, they should not be included in the 250 figure.

We’ve been telling you that as Israeli forces withdraw, many Palestinians are travelling back to their homes in northern Gaza.

These are the latest pictures coming in to us.

Image source, AFP

Image source, AFP

Image source, Reuters

Let's bring you a few comments from Gordon Gray, former US ambassador to Tunisia.

He tells the BBC that the Gaza ceasefire deal is a “very positive first step” for Israel and Gaza - but says more details are needed.

Gray, who is the Kuwait Professor of Gulf and Arabian Peninsula Affairs at George Washington University, describes Donald Trump's 20-point peace plan as "more aspirational than it was detailed" - so further negotiations will have to happen in the coming weeks and months.

"It's going to require dogged, determined diplomacy to continue the effort and really dig down into the details," Gray says.

How many buildings in Gaza have been damaged since the start of the war?published at 15:52 BST 10 October

15:52 BST 10 October

By Kayleen Devlin

Thousands of displaced people have begun walking north along al-Rashid street towards Gaza City following the beginning of the ceasefire.

What they will be returning to is the widespread destruction brought about by two years of war.

According to a satellite imagery analysis released earlier this month from researchers at Oregon State University, 198,883 buildings in the Gaza Strip are thought to have been damaged since the start of the war.

Destruction of buildings can be seen across the territory, with Gaza City one of the worst-hit areas. Researchers estimate that 74% of buildings in the Strip’s largest urban area have likely been damaged since 7 October 2023.

Imogen Foulkes
Geneva correspondent

United Nations aid agencies say they are ready to flood Gaza with aid, but it remains unclear just how involved they will be.

On Thursday, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator Tom Fletcher outlined a 60-day plan to deliver aid, including fuel, and to rebuild schools and hospitals.

But aid agencies in Geneva this morning confessed they had not been contacted by any of the parties negotiating the ceasefire to discuss what their role would be.

All agencies say they have supplies standing by, and are ready to go in immediately, with the WHO saying "the task ahead is immense".

A key question remains over the role of Unrwa (the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees) which Israel banned a year ago accusing some of its staff of involvement in the 7 October attacks.

The UN believes the massive humanitarian operation needed in Gaza cannot be successful without Unrwa, which has around 12,000 staff on the ground, and the most experience in delivering aid, as well as running schools and clinics.

Unrwa’s spokeswoman Juliette Touma said the agency had not been contacted about its role, but said she couldn't "imagine it would be possible" to mount the aid operation without Unrwa.

She highlighted Unrwa’s long role in Gaza’s education system, pointing out that 600,000 Gazan children had now spent more than two years out of school.

Image source, Getty Images

Unicef's communications manager Tess Ingram has been describing the conditions in Gaza as the ceasefire comes into effect.

She tells the BBC's Lyse Doucet that it is "incredibly crowded" in al-Mawasi in southern Gaza, where she is working, with many people displaced in the past several weeks.

People are living in "really difficult conditions" - sleeping under sheets of tarpaulin with little else to keep them warm, while others walk without shoes through the rubble, according to Ingram.

"We've been restricted with what we can bring in and what areas we have access to," she says.

Ingram says that in the coming days, Unicef is going to mobilise supplies, including shoes, clean water and food to address the crisis.

Image source, AFP via Getty Images

As we've been reporting, Israel's justice ministry has released the names of 250 Palestinian prisoners - who had been serving life sentences - set to be released as part of the ceasefire agreement.

We've been looking through the list to see who we can identify. So far, we've found these notable names:

Iyad Abu al-Roub: The 51-year-old was charged with leading the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the Jenin area of the occupied West Bank and involvement in several terror attacks, including a 2005 suicide bombing on the Israeli city of Hadera. He has been in prison since November 2005.

Muhammad Abu al-Roub: The 26-year-old was arrested and jailed in 2017 for the fatal stabbing of 70-year-old Reuven Shmerling in Kfar Qasim, Israel.

Mahmoud Issa: A 57-year-old man linked to Hamas, jailed in 1993 for his role in the 1992 murder of Israeli border policeman Nissim Toledano in Lod.

According to the justice ministry, all three are being deported - either to Gaza or abroad to a third country.

Peter Lerner, a former spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces, has been speaking on Radio 4's World at One programme.

He says Israeli forces will now be redeployed to an agreed line. This will be a line of defence, he says, and IDF soldiers will take defensive action if Hamas or other militants "have a go" at their new position.

Lerner also says Hamas no longer poses the same threat to Israel that it did on 7 October 2023 - and while the group still has capabilities, it is "diminished".

Hamas security forces fill vacuum as who will run Gaza yet to be decidedpublished at 14:59 BST 10 October

14:59 BST 10 October

Barbara Plett Usher
Reporting from Jerusalem

Armed Hamas security forces have deployed in the streets of Gaza in the areas from which Israel withdrew.

They are filling a security vacuum because the details of who will run Gaza still haven’t been decided.

The Trump plan calls for the eventual establishment of an international stabilisation force, likely composed of officers from Arab and Muslim countries, supporting Palestinian police.

In the meantime, some Palestinians may welcome any sign of law and order in the enclave, although photographs show the armed men are wearing caps with the logo of the Hamas Internal Security agency rather than a regular police force.

And they will be a reminder to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he hasn’t destroyed Hamas, as he vowed to do.

We can bring you the latest from Gaza City, where Hamas gunmen have been deployed after the Israeli military completed its first phase of withdrawal.

Image source, .

Image source, .

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Image source, .

An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson has shared more details about the movement of its troops.

Nadav Shoshani says that "maintenance teams are continuing to restore vehicle and system readiness and reinforce the defence line".

He explains that a "large-scale logistical operation" was carried out "to adjust the deployment of IDF troops in Gaza".

As we've been reporting, the IDF has now completed the first phase withdrawal. Yet, access to many parts of Gaza City is still restricted, and fears persist that the fragile calm could be temporary.

Israeli military vehicles seen on the move in Gazapublished at 14:12 BST 10 October

14:12 BST 10 October

Image source, Instagram

By Paul Brown

We've seen evidence of Israel Defense Forces withdrawals in footage posted to social media.

In one clip, posted on Instagram, we saw heavy machinery moving in convoy in a southerly direction. The footage was filmed from the Jordanian Field Hospital in the Tel al-Hawa neighbourhood of Gaza City.

This is an area that has seen considerable military activity since the Israel Defense Forces’ operation to occupy Gaza City began in August.

We've also seen footage of tanks and other military vehicles crossing from northern Gaza back into Israel. By comparing with satellite imagery we can see they are using the Western Erez crossing close to the coast.

Image source, Telegram

Image source, AFP via Getty Images

Here’s the latest on the first stage of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas.

• Israel Defense Forces have completed the first phase withdrawal to an agreed point - the yellow line - at 12:00 local time (10:00 BST), US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff has confirmed
• The 72-hour period to release all 48 remaining Israeli hostages from Gaza has now started - Israel believes 20 are still alive
• Israel has released a list naming 250 Palestinian prisoners it will release
• A huge number of Palestinians are returning to Gaza’s north as the ceasefire is now in effect
• Unconditional aid entering Gaza is also an agreed part of the deal, but there’s no word yet on any entering - around 600 trucks are expected to enter daily

Follow us as we continue to bring you the latest.

Alice Cuddy
Reporting from Tel Aviv

Wael Al-Najjar, who is returning to his home in Jabalia in the north, says he has been displaced three times since the war began.

As soon as news of the ceasefire deal broke, he got ready to return home.

"We are waiting, sitting by the crossing. My son and I slept here last night, on the pavement, in the cold, waiting to go back home," he tells a BBC freelancer.

"Even if the house is destroyed, even if it’s just rubble, we’ll go back, put up a tent, and return to our people."