Image source, Getty Images

Earlier, we explained how we were still trying to ascertain just how many people had begun making their way back to Khan Younis in the hours since the Israeli military withdrew from the city.

We are now hearing from a journalist in Gaza who estimates that there are "thousands" of displaced Palestinians who are now heading back there.

The journalist, named Akram, says that he returned to the southern Gaza city yesterday, where he says he saw the "full scale destruction" of the area.

Thousands of people were making the journey, to search for essential supplies or try to recover bodies from beneath rubble, Akram has just told the BBC's World at One.

The BBC is unable to independently verify the number of people returning to the city.

There are no police or aid agencies in Khan Younis, according to Akram.

Hugo Bachega
Middle East correspondent, in Jerusalem

Israel and Hamas have expressed cautious optimism following the latest round of talks aimed at securing ceasefire in Gaza.

The Israeli foreign minister, Israel Katz, said talks in Cairo - which are being mediated by Egypt and Qatar – had reached a critical point, and he was increasingly optimistic a breakthrough may be possible.

Any deal is likely to see the release of hostages being held in Gaza in return for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.

However, we still don’t know whether key obstacles to a deal have been resolved.

Hamas wants a permanent ceasefire – in other words, the end of the war – as well as the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and displaced residents allowed to return to the northern part of the enclave.

So far, Israeli authorities have rejected those demands as unacceptable, saying it would give Hamas the opportunity to regroup, They insist on the need to launch an offensive in Rafah to destroy four Hamas units they maintain are based in the city.

But in recent days they have indicated they are open to concessions.

Prime Minister Netanyahu is facing international pressure to de-escalate the conflict, as well as opposition to the intended offensive in Rafah, where more than one million Palestinians are sheltering in precarious conditions.

At home, in Israel, there are divisions inside the governing coalition, with some of Netanyahu's hard-line allies against any easing off of hostilities.

But there is renewed pressure for a truce, especially from the US - a key ally for Israel - with CIA chief William Burns in Cairo for the talks.

Image source, Reuters

Nicaragua has asked the UN's highest court to halt German weapons sales to Israel at the start of a landmark case.

Germany is accused of breaching the UN genocide convention by sending military hardware to Israel and ceasing funding of the UN's aid agency for Palestinian refugees.

Berlin rejects the claims and will present a defence to the International Court of Justice on Tuesday.

In 2023, Germany’s arms sales to Israel totalled €300m ($326m; £257m), 30% of Israel’s military equipment purchases and a tenfold increase on 2022.

Components for air defence systems and communications equipment accounted for most of the sales, according to the DPA news agency.

Nicaragua’s allegations build on a separate case accusing Israel of genocide brought by South Africa in January.

Israel rejects accusations that it is engaging in genocidal acts in Gaza and has insisted it has the right to defend itself.

• Read the full story here.

Images from above show Khan Younis destructionpublished at 13:07 British Summer Time 8 April

13:07 BST 8 April

Image source, .

At the start of December, Israel carried out intensive air strikes on the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, and on 5 December announced that its force had advanced on the area.

Since then, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has heavily bombarded central Khan Younis, including a raid on the Nasser hospital in March amid claims it was being used to house Hamas operatives.

The district around Nasser hospital was once densely populated - the streets lined with bakeries, home to several mosques and a football stadium.

Satellite images from 3 April this year show large swathes of the area now flattened.

At the end of November, the Khan Younis Municipal Stadium had a pitch of lush grass, now completely churned up, with much of the stadium itself destroyed.

North of the stadium, several rows of buildings have been reduced to rubble.

The Nasser hospital to the south of the stadium is still standing, but was left no longer functional following Israeli raids in February.

We’ve been hearing from some of the 600,000 children sheltering in the city of Rafah about their fears of coming under attack and the destruction that awaits them in their hometowns.

The Israeli military previously told people across Gaza to evacuate to Rafah, declaring it a safe zone, but now appears to be planning to enter the city, saying an offensive is necessary to eliminate Hamas.

Saad Ouda, 14, is originally from Khan Younis and told BBC Arabic that he hoped to return there, even if his house is no longer standing.

“Go to Khan Younis and you will find everything destructed, all our houses have been destroyed,” he said.

“And yet I would rather sit on the remains of my house rather than sitting in Rafah.

“My siblings are scared and crying. My only wish in life is to go back home and live in peace. Enough humiliation and enough bombardment.

“We sleep here in Rafah with our eyes open. The forces told us to go to Rafah [and] that it is a safe zone but it is completely unsafe.”

He said that, for him and the other children of Gaza, “life has been a constant war ever since we were born”.

“What can we do? We as children in Gaza didn't have the privilege to enjoy life like children in the rest of the world. Nothing, no games, no water, no food,” he said.

“We are always suffocating and trapped and our life is unlike the rest of the world. We have been at war for six months and not a single passing day was good.

“Everything is war. Our eyes don’t shut, nor do we sleep like other people, nor is their food, nor is this our life.”

Image source, Reuters

Palestinians are continuing to return to Khan Younis, searching for their homes in the rubble, after Israeli troops left the southern Gaza city.

As we try to ascertain the number of people returning there, here are some of today's key news lines:

• Israel has said the withdrawal of troops does not mean the war is over. Lt Col Peter Lerner told the BBC that Israel's military mission in the immediate area may be complete but "there are more operations that need to be conducted" elsewhere in the Strip
• Palestinians, speaking to BBC Arabic, have described Khan Younis as having suffered "complete destruction" saying there is "hardly anything left" of the city
• Meanwhile, truce talks between Israel and Hamas appear to have stalled, with unnamed Israeli and Hamas officials telling various news outlets no agreement has been reached so far
• International pressure for a ceasefire is mounting, particularly after seven aid workers were killed in Gaza last week by an Israeli strike. US President Joe Biden has said Israel must make changes in how the war is being waged to avoid civilian deaths
• Meanwhile, the Israeli military announced on Monday that it has successfully "eliminated" a senior Hezbollah commander in an air strike on southern Lebanon

Image source, .

In our previous post, we reported on Israel's announcement that it has killed a senior Hezbollah commander - but you may be wondering what that attack has to do with the war in Gaza.

Hezbollah, a Shia Muslim organisation based in Lebanon, has deep ties to Hamas.

It was established in the early 1980s by the most dominant Shia power in the Middle East - Iran - to oppose Israel. At the time, Israel's forces had occupied southern Lebanon during the country's civil war.

One of the most heavily-armed, non-state military forces in the world, Hezbollah is designated a terrorist organisation by Western states, Israel, Gulf Arab countries and the Arab League.

Its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, has close links with Iran and its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. He has not appeared in public for years, reportedly for fear of being assassinated by Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu previously promised a response of "unimaginable" magnitude if Hezbollah opens a second front in the current war.

• The BBC's Jeremy Bowen recently wrote about life near the Israel-Lebanon border, which you can read here

The Israeli military says it has killed a senior Hezbollah commander in an air strike on southern Lebanon.

Ali Ahmed Hassin was targeted in an attack near the village of Sultaniyeh, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claims in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

"Two more terrorists who were under his command" were also killed, according to the IDF, which accuses Hassin of "the planning and execution" of various attacks against Israel.

Hezbollah is yet to respond publicly to news of Hassin's death. The Shia Muslim organisation has considerable political influence and controls the most powerful armed force in Lebanon.

Its relationship with Israel is contentious - in 2006, a full-blown war broke out after Hezbollah carried out a deadly raid.

Since the war with Hamas began in October, it has exchanged sporadic cross-border fire with the Israeli military.

We've been hearing from Palestinians returning to Khan Younis after Israel withdrew troops from southern Gaza.

Speaking to BBC Arabic, Hamed Yaser Ahmed Abo Hayah says the area has suffered "complete destruction".

He adds he hasn't been able to change his clothes in seven months.

"I wash them before I sleep and then put them on the window and sleep with my boxer and in the morning, I wear them as they are," he says.

"It’s been seven months till now, and my clothes have not been changed, I only change them at night and wear them in the morning after they have sat in the sun. There is no life".

Palestinians are continuing to make their way back to Khan Younis after Israel significantly reduced the number of troops it has on the ground in Gaza.

Many people came home to find that their houses were in ruins, with others saying they couldn't actually locate their homes.

The large-scale destruction was described as "unreal" by one resident, with footage showing overturned cars, collapsed buildings and stairwells crumbled.

Watch more below:

Israel's troop reduction likely tactical, not a signal of war's endpublished at 11:18 British Summer Time 8 April

11:18 BST 8 April

Sebastian Usher
Middle East analyst, in Jerusalem

Image source, Reuters

On the surface, Israel's announcement that it has pulled all but one brigade out of southern Gaza would seem to suggest a noteworthy shift in the Israeli army's strategy there. But it may not presage any major change.

Israel has previously withdrawn other troops when their military objective is judged to have been completed.

An army statement has said the 98th commando division had left Gaza in order to "recuperate and prepare for future operations". The military has stressed that a "significant force" remains in Gaza, with the ability to preserve the Israel Defense Forces' "freedom of action".

That sends a message that the pull-out is tactical and does not suggest the war may be moving closer to its end. But a military operation that focuses on narrower targets may lessen the likelihood of heavy civilian casualties.

That is something that Israel's closest and most powerful ally, the US, has been applying increasing pressure on the Israeli government to do.

The US would certainly be extremely concerned if the move proved to be related to the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's repeatedly stated intention to mount an operation against Hamas in the southernmost Gazan town of Rafah, where more than one million displaced Palestinians have taken refuge.

Israel's decision to pull a major division out of the southern city of Khan Younis and the Gaza Strip has led to questions about what this means for the war's timeframe. Is this a sign it's ending soon? Or is something bigger happening?

The US has had its say, with White House National Security spokesman John Kirby telling ABC News that the IDF's troop reduction in southern Gaza appears to be a "rest and refit" - and not necessarily indicative of any new operations.

"They've been on the ground for four months, the word we're getting is they're tired, they need to be refit," he told the broadcaster Sunday night, clarifying that it was "hard to know exactly what this tells us right now".

Israel has been under pressure from the US over the way the war on Hamas is being waged. Last week, after an Israeli strike killed seven aid workers in Gaza, President Joe Biden told Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu that the US's ongoing support for Israel was dependent on "specific, concrete steps" to boost aid and prevent civilian deaths in the Palestinian enclave.

Here's a snippet of a briefing Kirby gave following that call between Biden and Netanyahu:

Israel changes tack in Gaza amid US pressurepublished at 10:51 British Summer Time 8 April

10:51 BST 8 April

Jeremy Bowen
International Editor

I think Israel’s military offensive is a bit stuck and has run into political issues with the US, particularly after that attack last week on the seven World Central Kitchen aid workers in Gaza.

What the Israelis wanted to do was to go into Rafah - where there’s about a million and a half Palestinian civilians - and go after the remains of Hamas there.

But the Americans have made it clear they don’t believe that Israel has a plan that will offer sufficient protection to civilians during that operation. So Israel has pulled the troops back while saying they will return to Rafah.

At the same time, there are ceasefire talks and prisoner exchange talks going on in Cairo, presided over by the head of the CIA, the head of Egyptian intelligence, and the Qatari prime minister, and we know the Americans are trying to push very hard for a deal.

There are various leaks and rumours coming out about those talks. But it may be - and this theory is one that is knocking around in Israeli media this morning - that pulling back from southern Gaza may be a standard operating procedure, or a little step, towards the Hamas position of Israel leaving Gaza completely, and therefore could be a help in the negotiations.

Of course, Israel can continue to deliver air strikes into Gaza and I don’t think Israel's got any plans to pull out of Gaza entirely.

Israeli forces have already cut Gaza in half, creating a buffer zone across the middle and building a base in the northern part. And they’re not letting Palestinians back into the north as far as we can tell.

So it looks more likely to me that, rather than leaving Gaza, Israel may be moving away from having large forces manoeuvring through there, smashing everything in their path and killing an awful lot of people.

And instead they are responding to their own tactical imperatives and the pressure from the Americans and turning it into more pinpoint raids like they do in the West Bank.

• Read more from Jeremy Bowen: Obstacles to peace seem larger than ever after six months of war

The statistics record the horrors of the past six months.

More than 33,000 Gazans, a majority of whom were civilians, have been killed, according to the Palestinian Hamas-run health ministry.

The ministry’s latest demographic breakdown from 5 April indicates that more than 70% of those killed were women and children.

According to Save the Children, 13,800 Palestinian children in Gaza have been killed and over 12,009 wounded. Unicef reports at least 1,000 children have had one or both legs amputated.

More than 1.7 million people have been internally displaced, according to the United Nations.

Image source, EGYPTIAN PRESIDENTIAL OFFICE/HANDOUT/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

We're receiving conflicting reports about the current state of Israel-Hamas truce talks this morning.

While Egyptian media is reporting that there's been "noticeable progress" in the discussions - taking place in Cairo - Israel has been quoted as saying something quite different.

“We still don’t see a deal on the horizon,” an unnamed Israeli official is quoted as telling the Ynet news site. “The distance [between the sides] is still great and there has been nothing dramatic so far."

Similarly, Al Jazeera TV earlier quoted a Hamas source denying any progress had been made, saying the Israeli delegation “did not respond to any of Hamas’s demands”.

Those demands include a permanent ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, the return of the displaced Palestinians to their homes, and the provision of freedom of movement, shelter and aid to Palestinians - as well as a hostage-prisoner swap deal.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said over the weekend that Israel will not agree to a ceasefire until the hostages being held in Gaza are released. Sunday marked six months of the war.

Image source, Reuters

We're now hearing from some of the residents who have begun returning to Khan Younis in the last 24 hours.

As we've been reporting, the southern Gaza city has been under bombardment for months, but on Sunday the Israeli military announced it was reducing its forces in the region, allowing civilians to see what remains of their homes.

Najwa Ayyash has told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that when she arrived in the flattened city, she was checking to see if her home was still standing, “but there is hardly anything left of it", she says.

“There are no stairs to get to it. My brother managed to climb up and get us some clothes for my children," she says.

Asad Abu Ghalwa tells BBC that he and his neighbour's homes have both been "flattened".

“We came to check our house. We didn’t find anything," he says. “I just wanted to find a place to stay with my family.”

With or without US support, a Rafah offensive is not imminentpublished at 09:56 British Summer Time 8 April

09:56 BST 8 April

Hugo Bachega
Middle East correspondent, in Jerusalem

The announcement by the Israeli military that troops had been pulled out from Khan Younis – and that only one brigade remained in the area – means the end of this phase of intense combat operations in southern Gaza.

The army has said those units had accomplished their mission there, and that they were now preparing for future operations in Gaza.

A key questions is, what does this mean for a possible offensive into Rafah?

Israel says it is imperative to enter Gaza’s southernmost city to eliminate Hamas - and be able to claim victory. More than a million Palestinians are sheltering there, in tents, improvised camps and overcrowded shelters.

The UN says any military operation could lead to a humanitarian disaster, and virtually everyone outside Israel is against the idea of a major offensive there, including the US, Israel’s closest ally.

Israeli authorities say they have a plan to evacuate civilians, but Biden officials do not seem to be convinced. They want Israel to carry out targeted operations against Hamas, instead of a huge offensive that would lead to another mass displacement of civilians.

With or without American support, an offensive is not imminent.

Yoav Gallant, the Israeli defence minister, has said Sunday’s announcement – which coincided with a new round of mediated talks for a ceasefire deal in Cairo – did not mean that the war was over.

But in another sign of divisions inside Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition, the country’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has said that if Netanyahu decided to end the war without an offensive into Rafah he would not have a mandate to remain as prime minister.

Image source, Reuters

As we continue to cover the return of Palestinians to the destroyed city of Khan Younis this morning, it's worth recalling some of the major developments that happened in the last week of the Israel-Gaza war:

• An Israeli air strike on a convoy of charity workers in Gaza, who were leaving a warehouse after unloading aid, killed seven World Central Kitchen (WCK) aid workers
• Speaking to ABC News in the US on Sunday night, WCK founder Jose Andres reiterated his belief that the attack was targeted
• Andres once again hit out at the wider actions of Israel, saying: "This doesn't seem a war against terror, this doesn't seem any more a war about defending Israel... this seems a war against humanity itself"
• Six of the seven aid workers killed in the strike were foreigners, sparking outrage from the international community
• US President Joe Biden warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a call that Israel must take steps to prevent civilian harm and humanitarian suffering if it wanted its strongest ally to continue its support
• National Security spokesman John Kirby has doubled-down on the US's position, telling ABC News on Sunday that the Biden administration has "made clear" changes need to be made in the way the Israeli Defense Forces are prosecuting operations in Gaza
• Israel has also approved the reopening of two humanitarian routes into Gaza so as to allow more aid into the besieged enclave

Palestinians are gradually beginning to return to what remains of their homes in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, after Israel announced that it had begun withdrawing troops from the area.

Here are some of the latest photos from the city:

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, EPA

Israel’s military says it is reducing the number of its soldiers deployed in southern Gaza, leaving behind just one brigade in the area.

In a statement on Sunday, it stressed that a "significant force" would remain to operate in Gaza.

The withdrawal from the southern city arrives as Israel is facing growing international pressure for a ceasefire, but the pull-out is being interpreted as a tactical move rather than a sign the war is coming to an end.

Earlier, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Lt Col Peter Lerner told the BBC troops would rotate out of the area because their mission in the southern city of Khan Younis, which has been under bombardment for months, had been completed.

"The war is not over,” he has said. "[This] is a decline in the forces but there are more operations that need to be conducted.

“We need to dismantle Hamas' capabilities wherever they are."

• Read the full story here.