Gaza: Displaced Palestinians return to ruins

GAZA CITY: Tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians loaded cars, carts and bicycles with belongings and made their way back to their neighbourhoods on Saturday, weaving through streets shrouded in dust as bulldozers began to claw through the wreckage of two years of bombardment.

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Aid groups were preparing to scale up relief work, one of the many challenges ahead as a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas entered its second day.

"When people get there, they're going to find rubble. They'll find that their homes and their neighbourhoods have been reduced to dust," UNICEF spokesperson Tess Ingram said on Friday.

As the ceasefire appears to hold, her organisation and its partners are urging Israel to reopen more crossings and allow aid to flow into Gaza more freely. Meanwhile, about 200 US troops arrived in Israel to help retrieve hostages and monitor the ceasefire.

"A ceasefire alone is not enough," Ingram said, speaking from central Gaza. "Yes, it stops the killing and injuring of children, hopefully, but it also needs to ensure a surge of humanitarian aid that begins to address the tremendous damage that has been done over the past two years."