Tens of thousands of Palestinians began moving along the main roads leading north in Gaza on Monday as Israel opened roadblocks after the militant group Hamas agreed to hand over female Israeli hostage Arbel Yehud and two other hostages.

Television images showed large crowds on the move and witnesses said the first residents arrived in Gaza City in the early morning after the first crossing point in central Gaza opened at 7.00 a.m (0500 GMT). Another crossing was due to open at 9.00 a.m.

Four female Israeli soldiers who were taken in the attack that sparked the war in Gaza returned to Israel on Saturday after Hamas militants paraded them before a crowd of thousands in Gaza City and handed them over to the Red Cross. Israel later released 200 Palestinian prisoners in the second exchange of a fragile ceasefire.

A twisted propaganda video Hamas terrorists published in an attempt to spin the four hostages’ release Saturday in a celebratory light after they were held 477 days in captivity was slammed by the Israel Defense Forces as cruel.

The two-minute, 53-second clip, released by the terror group’s Al-Qassam Brigades military wing, shows the four soldiers — Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa, Naama Levy and Liri Albag — dressed in military-style garb and seated in a white SUV, where they are given framed certificates with their “prisoner release form,” as well as a keychain and “gift bags.”

The Israeli-occupied West Bank has erupted in celebrations after 90 Palestinian prisoners, most of them women, were released from Israeli jails as part of an Israel-Hamas ceasefire.

Families in the West Bank waited until early on Monday to receive their loved ones, most of whom had been detained without charge.

The ceasefire, which ended Israel’s more than 15-month war on Gaza, also saw the release of three Israeli captives. More captives and prisoners are expected to be released in the coming weeks.

Israel has freed 90 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, more than seven hours after three Israeli hostages were released by Hamas and returned to Israel.

A large bus carrying dozens of Palestinian detainees exited the gates of Israel’s Ofer prison in the early hours of Monday morning, just outside the West Bank city of Ramallah.

According to a list provided by the Palestinian Authority's Commission for Prisoners' Affairs, all of those released are women or minors.

Jubilant crowds waving Hamas and Islamic Jihad flags defied a ban on celebrations to welcome 90 Palestinian prisoners home to the West Bank yesterday.

The Israeli government had warned that ‘public displays of joy’ could lead to the detainees being re-arrested.

But thousands lined the streets, shouting and whistling, as three Red Cross buses delivered the 69 women and 21 boys - some as young as 12 - to the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah.

Republican New York Rep. Elise Stefanik touted her fiery grillings of college administrators on Tuesday when she appeared before Senate lawmakers as part of her confirmation process to serve as the ambassador to the U.N., saying it was a "watershed moment" that exposed "antisemitic rot" in the U.S. colleges. 

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), President Donald Trump’s nominee to represent the U.S. at the United Nations, on Tuesday painted the international organization as a body beset by bias against Israel, nefarious Chinese influence and ineffective peacekeeping efforts.

But she argued the U.N. isn’t irredeemable and pledged that she’d help usher “strong American leadership” at the multilateral body.

As Palestinians poured onto the streets of Gaza to celebrate the ceasefire, moments of joy faded for many as they returned to their homes to be met by destruction.

In Jabalia, a town in northern Gaza that is home to the largest refugee camp in the strip, pictures and videos shared by residents revealed entire neighbourhoods reduced to rubble.

Returning to the al-Faluja area of Jabalia, Duaa al-Khalidi told BBC News: "I survived with my two daughters, we came out from under the rubble of our house.