Thousands of people continued to travel on foot towards Gaza City on Saturday as a ceasefire held overnight, but initial reports described devastation across the area.

“The scale of the destruction is truly staggering,” said Olga Cherevko, a spokeswoman for the United Nations humanitarian office, who visited the city last week. “We have many people moving north to Gaza City and arriving to find the ruins of what used to be their homes, so there is a lot of conflict and emotion.”

Mediators hope the ceasefire will bring an end to two years of war. For many of those walking along a coastal road north of Gaza, the lull in the fighting offered a chance to return home and learn what remains of their lives there.

Ahmed Jabr, 37, who was traveling Friday with his wife and seven children, had fled Gaza City last month and feared he would never return. “Now, I’m back,” Mr. Jabr said. “There’s no bombing, no airstrikes, no fear. I finally feel safe, and so do my children.”

The ceasefire began at noon on Friday after the Israeli government approved the agreement early that morning.

Under the agreement, the Hamas terrorist group would release the remaining Israeli hostages held in Gaza in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel , and Israeli troops would withdraw to new deployment lines inside the territory.

The agreement is based on a 20-point plan announced last month by President Donald Trump. Although the agreement reached last week does not address some of the plan's key points, including whether Hamas will agree to disarm, Trump nevertheless celebrated it as a victory.

"I've never seen happier people than in many of these places, not just in Israel, many of these places, they're all dancing in the streets," Trump said at a White House event on Friday."I've never seen anything like it."

He told reporters he believed there was "majority consensus" on the plan and that the hostages would be released on Monday."They're getting them now," he said."They're in some pretty tough spots. Only a few people know where they are in some cases."

In Gaza, joy at the lull in fighting was tempered by the scale of destruction many face upon returning north.

On Saturday, Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesman for Gaza's civil defense emergency rescue service, said 63 bodies had been recovered from the streets of Gaza City since the ceasefire began on Friday. He said he believed dozens more were likely buried under the rubble.

On the coastal road from southern Gaza, Mona Mortaja, a 27-year-old accounting student, was returning to a city she thought she would never see again. “Our goodbye to Gaza felt like our last,” she said on Friday.