APAwire - APA wire CLIENTS ONLY, Rafah- 20 January 2024. Internally displaced Palestinians inspect their destroyed houses in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, 20 January 2025, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Israel and Hamas agreed on a hostage release deal and a Gaza ceasefire to be implemented on 19 January 2025. More than 46,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, since Israel launched a military campaign in the strip in response to a cross-border attack led by the Palestinian militant group Hamas on 07 October 2023, in which about 1,200 Israelis were killed and more than 250 taken hostage.