Palestinians return home after Gaza ceasefire

Thousands of Palestinians have begun to return to their homes after an open-ended truce with Israel was agreed.

Celebrations carried on after dark in Gaza City on Tuesday, as people poured into the battered streets, clapping and singing, after the truce was announced.

On Wednesday, fishing boats ventured out to sea as restrictions were eased.

The ceasefire brokered by Egypt brings to an end 50 days of fierce fighting in which more than 2,200 people have been killed, most of them Palestinians.

Hamas, the militant Islamist movement that dominates Gaza, said the agreement with Israel represented a “victory for the resistance”.

But an Israeli government official criticised Hamas, saying almost identical terms were available almost a month ago.

Life in Gaza was returning to normal on Wednesday, as thousands of people began returning to their homes.

Engineers meanwhile struggled to repair infrastructure damaged by Israeli air strikes and shellfire.

In Israel, sirens warning of incoming rocket fire were silent and the military said there had been no violations of the ceasefire since it took effect.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the end of hostilities, but warned that a brighter future for civilians who have been affected depends on a sustainable truce.

“After 50 days of profound human suffering and devastating physical destruction, any violations of the ceasefire would be utterly irresponsible,” he said.

The BBC’s Kevin Connolly in Jerusalem says any ceasefire only lasts up until the moment it is broken, but this latest deal does feel more durable than the ones that came and went before it.

The ceasefire deal calls for the relaxing of Israeli and Egyptian border controls to allow humanitarian supplies and construction materials into Gaza, and the widening of the territory’s fishing zone.

Both sides have agreed to address more contentious issues – including Palestinian demands for a seaport in Gaza and the release of Hamas prisoners in the West Bank, and Israel’s demand for Gaza’s militants to be disarmed – at indirect talks that should begin in Cairo within a month.

Inevitably, our correspondent says, both sides are also turning to the issue of who won and who lost.

The militant factions in Gaza lost fighters, leaders and supplies that will take time to replace. But Israel, for all its superior firepower, cannot really claim a decisive victory, our correspondent adds.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far made no comment, but Israeli media reported that he had chosen not to put Egypt’s ceasefire proposal to a vote in his security cabinet because of opposition from ministers who wanted to continue the offensive on Gaza.

Israel launched Operation Protective Edge on 8 July with the stated aim of ending rocket fire.

At least 2,140 people, most of them civilians, have been killed in Gaza, according to the Palestinian health ministry. Another 11,000 people have been injured.

The Israeli authorities say 64 Israeli soldiers have been killed, along with six Israeli civilians and a Thai national.

The UN says more than 17,000 buildings in Gaza have been destroyed or severely damaged, and that there are at least 475,000 internally displaced people, more than a quarter of the territory’s population.

Japan marks war criminal ceremony

Japanese PM Shinzo Abe sent a message to a ceremony honouring war criminals, officials have confirmed, amid strained ties with China and South Korea.

In the message, sent in April, he paid tribute to soldiers who gave their lives for “the foundation of the fatherland”, reports said.

A government spokesman said the message had been sent in a private capacity.

Abe is under fire from China and South Korea for his perceived attitude to Japan’s war-time history.

Local reports said that Abe had sent his message to the Buddhist Koyasan Okuno-in temple in Wakayama in western Japan.

It houses a monument to more than 1,000 “Showa martyrs,” referring to soldiers who fought in World War Two in the name of the late Emperor Hirohito.

The monument also honours the 14 “Class A” war criminals who were military leaders, also commemorated at the more well-known Yasukuni shrine in Tokyo.

Abe reportedly said: “I offer my sincere condolences to the spirits of those Showa martyrs who gave their lives for the sake of today’s peace and prosperity, becoming the foundation of the fatherland.”

“I pray for eternal peace and pledge to carve out a path to a future of human coexistence.”

Abe has previously said that those convicted by the tribunal set up by Allied forces after the war are not considered war criminals under Japanese law.

The prime minister, who was elected in December 2012, angered China and South Korea when he visited Yasukuni a year later.

He sent traditional offerings to the shrine both in April and earlier this month during visits by lawmakers and ministers.

China and South Korea view the shrine as a symbol of Japan’s past militarism and are always angered by visits.

South Korea is still at odds with Japan over sex slaves – women forced into war-time prostitution for the Japanese military – following the suggestion, now shelved, by Abe’s government that Japan could review a landmark 1993 apology on the issue.

Meanwhile China and Japan remain locked in a bitter dispute over the ownership of a string of islands in the East China Sea known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China.