Extract from ABC News
Gazans are preparing for the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas to move into its next phase. (ABC News)
After the body of 24-year-old Rani Gvili was returned to Israel from Gaza this week, no hostages from the October 7 massacre remain in the territory after two-and-a-half years.
Returning all of the hostages was a significant objective of the Netanyahu government in order to bring an end to the war.
It is a big moment, but also one that raises questions about where to from here.
Uncertainty remains about the future of the strip, including who will oversee its administration, while sticking points remain on key issues such as Hamas's disarmament and the withdrawal of Israel Defence Force assets.
Has the war stopped?
Earlier this month, the White House announced the fragile truce in Gaza had entered its next phase, three months after it was first agreed to by Israel and Hamas. Both sides have accused the other of repeatedly violating the deal.
Since it came into force on October 10 last year, Palestinian health authorities say 488 people have been killed in Gaza (as of 11am local time on Wednesday) and 1,350 have been injured as a result of Israeli attacks.
In the same period, four Israeli soldiers were killed by Hamas, and the Israeli government had insisted it would not advance the deal until Hamas had returned the bodies of all its hostages.
That is a process which ended on Monday, with the discovery of the remains of Gvili, a police officer, in a cemetery in the east of Gaza City.
Many Gazans have been displaced during the Israel-Hamas war. (ABC News)
Who's driving the next phase?
At the World Economic Forum in Davos last week, President Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, outlined the plan for New Gaza, including glossy images of soaring skyscrapers along the Gaza coastline.
Mr Kusher, who was part of the negotiations for the ceasefire, pointed to the role of the new Palestinian technocratic government appointed to run the strip in his presentation.
"We have a new government in Gaza, this government will be working with Hamas on the demilitarisation to really take the principles that were agreed to in the document to the next phase," Mr Kushner said.
He outlined a series of "demilitarisation principles", stating the process would be under the control of the technocratic government, known officially as the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG).
Hamas spokesman Hazem Qasem said the group, which is a proscribed terrorist organisation under international law, would cooperate with the new government.
"Hamas is genuinely interested to hand over the reins of power to this independent committee," he said.
"There are steps on the ground that have begun, there is preparation of files."
But Qasem said there was still work to be done to get to the point of disarming.
Hazem Qasem flagged potential reluctance from the prescribed terrorist organisation to disarm. (ABC News)
Will Hamas disarm?
As part of Trump's 20-point plan to end the war, the US president said an international stabilisation force would deploy to Gaza.
Qasem said the idea that the international stabilisation force would be responsible for dealing with Hamas's weapons was not acceptable to the group.
"This has to be resolved through an internal national agreement, through dialogue between the factions and the mediators, and it cannot be imposed on our Palestinian people," Qasem told the ABC in Gaza, before the discovery of Gvili's body.
The ABC, like all international media organisations, is still blocked by Israel from accessing the strip apart from limited and highly controlled press visits.
The Foreign Press Association, which represents the international media in Israel and Palestine, is challenging those restrictions in Israel's Supreme Court. The case has been repeatedly delayed and postponed, and is next due to be heard in late March.
As a result, all interviews conducted in Gaza are facilitated through trusted freelancers.
"These arms are legitimate according to the international law in order to protect our Palestinian people, to achieve our rights," Qasem said.
"And therefore, it has to be an internal Palestinian discussion through realistic political approaches, engaging with the mediators, and then we will discuss it with the US, but putting pre-emptive directives will not succeed."
That leaves responsibility for disarming Hamas to Palestinian police, working under the auspices of the NCAG.
Jordan and Egypt have previously been identified as responsible for training those officers.
The next phase of the ceasefire cannot come soon enough for many Gazans. (ABC News)
There is also contention over exactly which countries will make up the stabilisation force.
Israel has repeatedly insisted it would have veto powers over the makeup of the International Stabilisation Force (ISF), including rejecting any role for the Turkish and Qatari governments, labelling the nations as hostile to Israel, and inappropriate for the initiative.
"We are not talking about determining the identity of the countries, or who will participate in the force," Qasem said.
"What we say is that the main role of this force will be to be a barrier between the [Israeli] occupation and the civilians of our people, and to secure the implementation of the ceasefire in all its phases."
The issue of Israeli-backed Palestinian militia groups remains, however, and Hamas has pledged to continue targeting them.
After the Gaza ceasefire was reached in October, graphic videos started emerging of Hamas fighters carrying out public executions as they sought to establish power.
The leader of one group, Yasser Abu Shabab — accused of being a proxy for Israel — was killed late last year. Hamas, at the time, said he received what he deserved.
"There are gangs who collaborate with the [Israeli] occupation that arms them, trains them, gives them intel," Qasem said.
"These collaborators' militias do acts of sabotage in the Gaza strip: kidnappings, killings against security cadres and resistance cadres, and therefore they are regarded as criminals by all the Palestinian people, the factions, the political forces and the tribes and it is the right of the resistance to pursue these militias that collaborate with the occupation."
Displaced Gazans prepare a meal in the war-torn territory. (ABC News)
What progress has been made?
While the demilitarisation of Hamas remains a sticking point, along with the demands from the group for Israel to withdraw from the vast swathes of territory it still controls in Gaza, there is some progress on the next phase of the deal.
The head of the NCAG, former Palestinian Authority deputy minister Ali Shaath, had announced the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt would reopen this week.
It is the only Gaza entry and exit point that does not lead into Israel, and has been under Israeli control for much of the war. Israel had been roundly criticised for refusing to open it when the ceasefire was first struck in October.
Months later, it announced it would allow people to cross, but only to leave Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had faced pressure from within his own government and the broader community to keep Rafah closed until the remains of the final Israeli hostage were returned.
While the discovery of Ran Gvili cleared that hurdle, Mr Netanyahu immediately insisted that disarming Hamas was the priority of phase two.
Israel continues to control more than 50 per cent of the strip, and the territory is divided by what has been called the Yellow Line.
It is marked out by coloured concrete blocks placed through the strip. Palestinians who try to cross the line are regularly labelled "suspicious" by the Israeli military, and some have been shot.
Local health authorities say children are among them.
Under the ceasefire deal, Israeli forces withdrew to the line as part of the first stage of the agreement. That was in order to allow for the return of hostages.
But Hamas has accused Israel of moving the blocks further into the rest of Gaza, seizing more land. Satellite imagery appears to support that.
Israeli forces were meant to continue their phased withdrawal as the ceasefire progressed to its next stage.
The majority of the population in Gaza lives inside the Hamas-controlled area.
Is there any sense of phase two inside Gaza?
On the ground in Gaza, there was a scepticism in the community on what would come next, fuelled by previous broken promises of peace.
The technocratic committee has met in Cairo since being formed.
"In the media, we hear in the news from the US or Israeli administrations, from time to time, that the phase two of the ceasefire has come into effect," 25-year-old Muhammed Abu Alqumsan said.
"But we as residents of Gaza who live the reality, until now, all that is in the media is just words on paper, nothing has happened on the ground.
"We will begin feeling that we are in phase two once there will be reconstruction, an end to the killing, no daily Israeli violations, and the Yellow Line goes back to what was agreed upon in phase two."
Ahmad Jalal is looking forward to the next phase of the ceasefire starting. (ABC News)
Ahmad Jalal, 38, said there was anticipation for the Rafah crossing opening.
"We were waiting for the Israeli army to withdraw from new locations in Gaza, withdraw to new lines, the Rafah crossing will open, and there will be freedom of movement for travel abroad for the sick and the wounded, for those who need treatment abroad," he said.
"There will be entrance of temporary homes, either advanced type of tents, or mobile homes, there will be a flow of humanitarian aid — all of this until now has not happened."
Israel has repeatedly rejected claims from humanitarian agencies that it has blocked essential supplies, such as tents and tarpaulins, leaving Gaza's more than 2 million residents vulnerable to the harsh winter weather.
The UN's children's agency UNICEF has confirmed thousands of learning kits for Palestinian children had been allowed into Gaza, including pencils, for the first time in two years.
The Israeli agency responsible for aid access into Gaza, COGAT, told Reuters it had allowed the kits in — but not textbooks.
In the past, Israeli authorities have accused organisations such as UNRWA of using teaching materials which were anti-Israel.
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