US troops begin arriving in Israel to oversee ceasefire implementation in Gaza

US troops have started to arrive in Israel to oversee the implementation of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

US officials said 200 troops will be on the ground to set up a coordination centre aimed at facilitating the flow of humanitarian aid, as well as logistical and security assistance.

US special envoy Steve Witkoff visited Gaza on Saturday alongside the head of the US military's Central Command Brad Cooper to confirm the first phase of withdrawal by IDF troops.

“This great effort will be achieved with no US boots on the ground in Gaza,” Cooper said in a statement, noting that his command would lead the centre.

Under the truce deal, the remaining 48 hostages held by Hamas in Gaza are set to be freed by Monday. The government believes around 20 of the hostages remain alive. In exchange, Israel will release about 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.

As the ceasefire held overnight, Palestinians faced the extent of the destruction brough by Israel bombings over the course of two years of war.

Officials in Gaza said that over 5,000 public operations have been conducted since the ceasefire came into effect. This includes efforts to restore water and sewage infrastructure, medical operations and relief missions.

It added that around 700 humanitarian missions were carried out to distribute food to Gaza's displaced population.

The World Food Programme said Saturday it was ready to restore 145 food distribution points across the famine-stricken strip, once Israel allows for expanded deliveries. Before Israel sealed off Gaza in March, UN agencies provided food at 400 distribution points.

The United Nations said it had been given the green light by Israel to scale up aid deliveries starting Sunday.

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians continued to make their way through the dust-shrouded streets to return to their homes in the North. Gaza's civil defence agency said 500,000 people have arrived in Gaza city since the truce began.

“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 from central Gaza.

“A ceasefire alone is not enough,” Ingram added, and called for a “surge of humanitarian aid that begins to address the tremendous damage that has been done over the past two years.”

The death toll in Gaza is also expected to continue to rise as more bodies that couldn't be retrieved during Israel's offensive are found.

A manager at northern Gaza’s Shifa Hospital said that 45 bodies pulled from the rubble in Gaza City had arrived over the past 24 hours. The manager, speaking on condition of anonymity for safety reasons, said the bodies had been missing for several days to two weeks.

US President Donald Trump is expected to travel to the Middle East to participate in a signing ceremony of the Gaza peace deal in Egypt, potentially marking the end of the two-year bloody Israel-Hamas war.