Gaza biblical scenes with starving Palestinians rushing for flour as skeletal remains collected

Horrific images from Gaza have shown starving Palestinians rush to pick up sacks of flour after they return to obliterated towns and cities, following the first steps of a ceasefire in the region.

A peace deal was agreed between Israel and Hamas this week to end the horror war that has killed more than 70,000 people in the Gaza Strip, including women and children. Hamas has until Monday midday (10am local time) to return 48 hostages to Israel, as part of the peace deal, after the IDF moved out of parts of Gaza.

This has meant thousands of Gazans have been able to move back to their homes, like in Gaza City and Khan Yunis, only to find most of once bustling areas have been turned into rubble.

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Israel's government ordered the IDF to move into highly populated areas, like the Gaza Strip, displacing thousands of people who have already had everything taken away from them during this two-year-long bloodshed. Tens of thousands of displaced Gazans were seen walking back to Gaza City and Khan Yunis on Friday.

Shocking images showed huge crowds of people carrying sacks of flour and boxes of supplies amid piles of dust and rubble in Khan Yunis.

The first convoy of aid trucks carrying essential food, medicine and drinking water entered Gaza through the Kerem Abu Salem border crossing as part of the ceasefire agreement.

Heartbreaking images showed Palestinian civil defence teams pulling skeletal remains of Gazans killed by Israel. The ceasefire has allowed workers into areas that were blocked off by the IDF.

Beneath the rubble and destruction in Gaza, there are still feared to be around 10,000 corpses yet to be found, adding to the total of Palestinians killed in the two-year war.

Just days after the second anniversary of the October 7 attacks, Donald Trump announced: "This means that ALL of the Hostages will be released very soon, and Israel will withdraw their Troops to an agreed-upon line as the first steps toward a Strong, Durable, and Everlasting Peace."

Despite this long-awaited moment of peace in Gaza, the population of the war-torn strip will slowly start to rebuild the destroyed land among thousands of deaths.

A famine was declared in Gaza, in August, as hundreds of children were said to have perished from malnutrition-related deaths. The declaration of famine marked a significant step in the humanitarian crisis. The grim milestone was only the fifth time it has declared famine, after Somalia in 2011, South Sudan in both 2017 and 2020 and Sudan last year.