IDF says that ceasefire agreement has come into effect
Israeli military has said that the ceasefire agreement has come into effect, as troops have now retreated to the deployment lines agreed upon.
In a statement released on Telegram, the IDF says troops “began positioning themselves along the updated deployment lines” from midday local time.
“IDF troops in the Southern Command are deployed in the area and will continue to remove any immediate threat,” the statement adds. The IDF now has a 53% control of the Strip – most of these areas fall outside urban zones.
The agreement outlines that after the start of the ceasefire, Hamas then has 72 hours to release all hostages.
Key events
William Christou
Thousands of displaced Palestinians have begun to return home from southern Gaza after a ceasefire came into effect and Israeli troops withdrew to an agreed-upon redeployment line – the first time that fighting has stopped in the devastated territory since March.
The Israeli military said the ceasefire agreement, which was approved by the Israeli cabinet on Thursday night and begins the first phase of a US-drafted plan to end the war in Gaza, had been activated at noon local time (0900 GMT) on Friday.
Under the terms of the plan, Hamas is expected to release the 20 living Israeli hostages within 72 hours, after which Israel will release 250 Palestinians serving long terms in Israeli prisons, as well as 1,700 others detained in Gaza during the war.
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, claimed credit for the hostage release, saying in an address on Friday that the “security of Israel” was what dictated his actions in Gaza.
“I believed that if we applied heavy military pressure, combined with heavy diplomatic pressure, we would absolutely be able to return all of our hostages,” said Netanyahu, who also thanked the US president, Donald Trump, for his support to achieve the deal.
Avichay Adraee, an Israeli Arabic-language military spokesperson, said residents of Gaza could return north via specific routes, while warning them away from areas such as Beit Hanoun and the Rafah border crossing, where troops remained. Israeli bombing in Gaza had intensified on Friday morning up until the ceasefire began.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he is “fulfilling” his promise to bring back all the hostages, during a national address.
Netanyahu said that Israel is still “surrounding Hamas from every direction” and said that “Hamas will be disarmed and Gaza will be demilitarised”.
He added: “If this is achieved the easy way – so much the better. And if not – it will be achieved the hard way.”
Thousands of Palestinians in Gaza began heading north in the territory after the Israeli military announced that a ceasefire had come into effect. Israel will reportedly allow 600 aid trucks into Gaza every day, according to a report by Israeli Army Radio.
They will also let Palestinians who left the area during the war to return home through the Rafah crossing.
In the first phase of the ceasefire, all Israeli hostages will be freed in return for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
Julian Borger
Within a few months, the war in Gaza had already made its own addition to the vocabulary of emergency medical assistance with the world’s most heartbreaking acronym: WCNSF, “wounded child, no surviving family”.
Over two years of bombardment and famine the problem has worsened, even though in the constant chaos created by Israeli bombing and evacuation orders, which fragment communities and scatter them around the Gaza Strip, it is hard to keep track of children separated from their families.
The UN’s child protection agency, Unicef, cited Gaza health ministry statistics from early September, recording 2,596 children who had lost both parents, and a further 53,724 who had lost either their father (47,804) or mother (5,920).
There is no data on how many parentless children have also been wounded, but, even as the first phase of a ceasefire deal to end the long war was agreed on Thursday, Gaza has the highest rate of child amputations of any modern conflict.
On 13 August, a three-year-old girl, Wesam, was asleep with her five-year-old brother, Zuheir, her pregnant mother, Nour, her father, Moatassem, and her grandparents, when the family house in Gaza City was bombed. Wesam was the only survivor, but sustained serious wounds to her leg and abdomen, including a lacerated liver and kidney, and severe psychological trauma.
Unicef said she was in “urgent need of medical evacuation abroad for advanced treatment, particularly to save her left leg from the risk of amputation”.
Gaza residents have been told that “cooperation, discipline, and responding to instructions” is the safest way to move forward as aid comes into the region.
Al Jazeera has reported that Gaza’s Government Media Office has issued a “national appeal”, which asks the people living in the Gaza Strip to “ensure the success of the humanitarian recovery phase of the ceasefire agreement”.
“We call upon our great Palestinian people to fully cooperate with the governmental and humanitarian agencies,” it said.
It added: “We affirm that cooperation, discipline, and responding to instructions issued by governmental and relief agencies is the safe way to accelerate and facilitate service efforts provided to our people, and to ensure the gradual and organised restoration of life, in a way that achieves the interest of all and preserves the security and stability of society.”
The message also acknowledged the “extent of the pain” of the Palestinian people after months of bombardment, and says it therefore asks the people who live in the Strip to “deal with this stage with a spirit of national and humanitarian responsibility.”
At least 17 Palestinians have been killed and 71 injured in Israeli attacks in Gaza over the past 24 hours, according to Gaza’s health ministry (whose figures the UN finds credible).
The total death toll has risen to 67,211 since 7 October 2023, the ministry said.
This comes after it was announced yesterday that a ceasefire and hostage release deal was agreed upon between Hamas and Israel yesterday (9 October. The IDF says that as of midday today (10 October), the ceasefire has come into effect.
Unicef calls for all aid routes into Gaza to open, and warns of child deaths
Unicef has called for all aid routes into Gaza to open and warns that child deaths may spike if not.
“The situation is critical. We risk seeing a massive spike in child death, not only neonatal, but also infants, given their immune systems are more compromised than ever before,” said spokesperson Ricardo Pires.
Nutrition support is the main priority, according to Unicef, with 50,000 children at risk of acute malnutrition and in need of immediate treatment.
Pires said children “haven’t been eating properly and recently at all for way too long”, and this is causing them health problems which could have detrimental long-term impacts. “With children, they need to have the right vitamins and the nutrients to develop and be able to cope with temperature changes, or virus outbreaks,” he said.
About 600 trucks a day are reported to enter Gaza and deliver aid, as the United Nations has announced its plans to deliver 170,000 metric tons of food, medicine and other humanitarian aid is ready to enter Gaza. It is now seeking a green light from Israel to massively increase help for more than 2 million Palestinians in need.
In the last several months, UN and its humanitarian partners have only been able to deliver 20% of the aid needed in the Gaza Strip. As well as providing food, shelter equipment and medical supplies, it hopes to restore Gaza’s water grid and improve sanitation by installing latrines in households, repairing sewage leaks and pumping stations, and moving solid waste from residential areas
Unicef also said it has evacuated two of 18 newborn babies from a North Gaza hospital to be reunited with their parents in the south of the region.
“I hope this is just an example of what will come after the ceasefire is fully implemented,” Pires said.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that the did not listen to those who said it would not be possible to bring the hostages home. While delivering an address to the public on Friday, 10 October, he said “the security of Israel” is what guided his political decisions.
“I believed that if we applied heavy military pressure, combined with heavy diplomatic pressure, we would absolutely be able to return all of our hostages,” he said, as reported by the Times of Israel.
He later added: “That means achieving the goals of the war, including returning the hostages, removing the ballistic and nuclear threat from Iran that endangered our existence here, and breaking the Iranian axis, of which Hamas is a central component.”
Elsewhere in the address, the prime minister also said that the Israeli military is remaining in Gaza to put pressure on Hamas until it disarms.
He also thanked his “big friend” US president Donald Trump, saying that diplomatic pressure and military presence is the “powerful combination” that “will cause Hamas to give back all of our hostages, while the IDF remains deep inside the Strip and holds all the key positions.”
Netanyahu thanked Trump “for his world leadership, and for his unceasing efforts to put together this plan to bring back our hostages.”
Trump, according to the Israeli prime minister, “proved his friendship to our people, to our country” – and was given praise along with the IDF and the loved ones of the Israeli hostages.
Palestinians begin journey north after Israel says ceasefire has come into effect
Thousands of Palestinians in Gaza began heading north in the territory after the Israeli military announced that a ceasefire had come into effect on Friday, according to AFP news agency.
Here are some of the images coming through to us on the wires:
Israel will reportedly allow 600 aid trucks into Gaza every day, according to a report by Israel’s Army Radio. They will also let Palestinians who left the Gaza strip during the war to return home through the Rafah crossing.
The 600 aid trucks will be allowed to flow from the south to the north of the Gaza Strip via Salah al-Din and al-Rashid streets, Al Jazeera reports. The trucks can bring in food, medical equipment, shelter supplies, and fuel – and will be distributed by a combination of United Nations, accredited international organisations and the private sector.
The radio report also said that Gaza residents will be able to go to Egypt through the Rafah crossing, similarly to what was allowed during the January 2025 agreement. However, this movement is subject to the approval of Israel and under the supervision and inspection of the European Union mission.
Israeli broadcaster Channel 12 reports that Donald Trump is expected to land in Israel at around 9am on Monday, 13 October. The US president is due to arrive at Ben Gurion Airport, where he will be welcomed with a formal ceremony.
However, the visit is now going to be shorter than originally planned, due to logistics of organising the trip at such a last minute – according to The Times of Israel.
After his arrival, Trump is expected to head straight to the Knesset in Jerusalem to deliver a speech before the start of the Jewish holiday Simchat Torah – which starts on Monday evening. As per Channel 12, if this timeline is accurate, this means the president will not have time to stop by Hostages Square in Tel Aviv.
It was confirmed yesterday that Trump will not be visiting Gaza during his Middle East trip.
