The return of fighters to Gaza streets highlights how Israeli bombardment has failed to achieve Netanyahu’s goal or eradicating Hamas as a political force.

The truce is aimed at winding down the deadliest and most destructive war ever fought between Israel and Hamas, whose Oct. 7, 2023, attack into Israel sparked the fighting.

Israel says it has killed thousands of the armed group’s members and destroyed much of its infrastructure, but since the cease-fire started Hamas has shown it still holds power in the enclave.

With a ceasefire agreement pausing the war between Israel and Hamas, Israeli troops have withdrawn from Gaza city centers.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.

For all the military might Israel deployed in Gaza, it failed to remove Hamas from power, one of its central war aims.

Four female Israeli soldiers held hostage by Hamas have returned to Israel after militants paraded them in front of a crowd of thousands in Gaza City.

The return to the status quo was clearly evident Sunday when the terrorist group and its supporters brazenly paraded around Gaza City’s Saraya Square during the first day of the cease-fire,

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

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

The female Israeli hostages who were freed on Saturday disobeyed their Hamas captors and made victory poses during the hand off ceremony to spoil the terrorists’ show, one of their fathers,

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Hamas freed eight hostages on Thursday as part of the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, but the chaotic handover of some of the captives, who were shuttled through a rowdy crowd of thousands by masked militants, drew an angry protest from Israel.