By PATRICK KINGSLEY, AARON BOXERMAN, ADAM RASGON, ISABEL KERSHNER and ERIC NAGOURNEY NYTimes News Service
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JERUSALEM — Palestinians took in the scale of devastation to their old neighborhoods and Israelis awaited news about three newly released hostages as a day-old ceasefire between Hamas and Israel continued to hold Monday.

With the 15-month war paused, Palestinians have been returning to parts of the Gaza Strip they had fled, picking their way through vast swaths of rubble and trying to salvage what they could — a sofa, a mattress, a chair or a crate — from the wreckage of their former homes.

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“People can barely recognize the crushed places where they used to live,” said Montaser Bahja, an English teacher, a day after visiting his old neighborhood in the northern city of Jabalia.

In a video shared with The New York Times, Bahja, 50, can be seen hurrying through the streets with his son Alhassan, 21, and trying to reconcile the piles of rubble that loom on either side with their memories.

“This is Fahmy Abu Warda’s home; this is Abu Shaaban’s home,” Alhassan is heard saying.

In Israel, which celebrated the return of the first group of hostages released by Hamas as part of the truce, authorities offered only the broadest of descriptions of their conditions. The Israeli Health Ministry and Sheba Medical Center, where the three women are staying in a closed wing with family members, said their primary commitment was to safeguard the former captives’ privacy as they received medical and psychological care.

“I’m happy to report that they are in stable condition,” said one of their doctors, Prof. Itai Pessach. “That allows us, and them, to focus on what is the most important thing for now: uniting with their families.”

But Israelis did hear from one of the women Monday.

“I have returned to life,” Emily Damari, 28, said on social media, describing herself as “the happiest person in the world.”

Damari was one of about 250 people taken hostage in the Hamas-led attack of Oct. 7, 2023. About 100 are believed to still be in Gaza, and about a third of those are believed to be dead. The militants also killed some 1,200 people that day, Israel says.

Under the terms of the ceasefire, Hamas agreed to free 33 hostages in exchange for the release of more than 1,000 Palestinians from Israel’s prisons. The return of the three hostages was followed by the release of 90 prisoners, and the exchanges are to take place once a week during the 42-day truce.

Palestinians in Gaza have rejoiced at the pause in fighting. Gaza health officials say more than 47,000 people have been killed during the Israeli assault that began after the 2023 Hamas attack; they do not distinguish between civilians and fighters.

But the scenes playing out in the enclave and in Israel on Monday embodied the bittersweet emotions felt on both sides of the border.

As the truce came into effect Sunday, celebrations replaced explosions, and hundreds of trucks with aid began rolling into Gaza, where residents have endured a harsh year of hunger and deprivation. In Israel, the returned hostages were met with jubilant embraces from relatives and friends. And fireworks and cheering crowds greeted the newly freed Palestinian prisoners in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

But joy was shadowed by uncertainty. The next round of negotiations between Hamas and Israel are expected to be even more difficult than the ones that led to the 42-day ceasefire.

The fate of more than 60 other hostages and thousands of other Palestinian prisoners in Israel, to say nothing of the prospect of a long-term end to the fighting, depends on the extension of the deal.

“This is a moment of tremendous hope — fragile, yet vital,” Tom Fletcher, the United Nations undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, said on social media.

The rejoicing has also been dimmed by the expectations of prolonged hardship to come and the knowledge that there is as yet no comprehensive plan for how Gaza will be rebuilt. Many of the 2 million residents there have been displaced at least once,

The task ahead is unimaginably daunting.