Israel delayed the release of 110 Palestinian prisoners for several hours after broadcast images showed crowds jostling and cheering in Gaza as Israeli and Thai hostages were handed over to the Red Cross earlier that day.

Thousands of Palestinians have returned to northern Gaza for the second day, walking kilometres to reach home.

Militants led Israeli hostage Arbel Yehoud through a chaotic crowd in Gaza ahead of her release, hours after Hamas handed a captive Israeli soldier over to the Red Cross in the Gaza Strip.

More than 375,000 Palestinians have made their way back to homes in northern Gaza after 15 months on the run because of war.

After a ceasefire deal paused 15 months of war in Gaza, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians returned to the rubble of their homes.

My mother, father, and brothers are all buried in one grave,” 12-year-old Alma Ja’arour said. "There is no home to return to, no one waiting for me.”

Qudra, her father and her brother were killed by shrapnel from an Israeli airstrike shortly after the ceasefire was supposed to go into effect.

Nedal Hamdouna, a Palestinian journalist, has been displaced seven times by the 15-month war in Gaza. Here, he describes the joy he felt in being able to return to Beit Lahia in the north of the strip

With a ceasefire agreement pausing the war between Israel and Hamas, Israeli troops have withdrawn from Gaza city centers. For the first time in eight months, NPR got a glimpse of Rafah this week.

Eight hostages held by Hamas militants are returned to Israel as Palestinian prisoner releases proceed — but can the Gaza cease-fire hold?

Eight more hostages were freed from the Gaza Strip by Hamas-led militants on Thursday in a sometimes chaotic process that briefly delayed Israel's release of 110 Palestinian prisoners and underscored the fragility of the ceasefire that began earlier this month.