Most of Gaza's 2.3 million people are crowded into the southern portion of the territory, with more than 1 million living in U.N. schools-turned-shelters. The calm brought a chance for displaced residents of the south to visit homes and retrieve some belongings. But the hundreds of thousands who evacuated from northern Gaza to the south were warned not to return in leaflets dropped by Israel. Israeli troops hold much of the north, including Gaza City. Israel says the cease-fire could be extended if more hostages are released, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said it had received a new list of hostages to be released by Hamas on Saturday. The Israeli offensive has killed more than 13,300 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza government. Women and minors have consistently made up around two-thirds of the dead, though the latest number was not broken down. The figure does not include updated numbers from hospitals in the north, where communications have broken down.

Meanwhile, specialised equipment has been deployed to the derailment area to conduct air monitoring. Molten sulphur is known to release sulphur dioxide when it burns, CSX said. Still, hundreds of Palestinians tried walking north Friday. Two were shot and killed by Israeli troops and another 11 were wounded. Hours later, 24 Palestinian women and 15 teenagers held in Israeli prisons in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem were freed. In the West Bank town of Beituna, hundreds of Palestinians poured out of their homes to celebrate, honking horns and setting off fireworks that lite up the nights sky.

Two of the cars spilled molten sulphur and sparked a fire that continued to burn as of 7.30am on Thursday, CSX said in an update.

After nightfall Friday, a line of ambulances emerged from Gaza through the Rafah Crossing into Egypt carrying the freed hostages, as seen live on Egypt's state-run Al-Qahera TV. The freed Israelis included nine women and four children 9 and under.The hope is that "momentum" from the deal will lead to an "end to this violence," said Majed al-Ansari, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of Qatar, which served as a mediator along with the United States and Egypt. Local authorities are recommending the evacuation of residents in Livingston, a town of about 200 people. Under the deal, Hamas is to release at least 50 hostages, and Israel 150 Palestinian prisoners over the four days. Both sides were starting with women and children. Israel said the four-day truce can be extended an extra day for every additional 10 hostages freed.

CSX said it would provide Thanksgiving dinner for residents, along with other food, lodging and other necessities.. Netanyahu has also vowed to continue the war to destroy Hamas' military capabilities, end its 16-year rule in Gaza and return all the hostages. Two cars also carried magnesium hydroxide, but there is no indication that those cars were breached, according to CSX. The others were either empty or carrying non-hazardous products such as grain and plastic. Friday's halt in fighting brought Gaza's uprooted population a moment to catch their breath after weeks of fleeing for shelter, searching for food and fearing for family. But Israel has vowed to resume its massive offensive once the truce ends. That has clouded hopes that the deal could eventually help wind down the conflict, which has fueled a surge of violence in the occupied West Bank and stirred fears of a wider conflagration across the Middle East.

People react as they hear the news of the release of 13 Israeli hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza strip, in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Nov. 24, 2023. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit) The war erupted when several thousand Hamas militants stormed into southern Israel, killing at least 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking scores of hostages, including babies, women and older adults, as well as soldiers.

Yael Adar spotted her mother, 85-year-old Yaffa Adar, in a TV newscast of the release and was cheered to see her walking. "That was a huge concern, what would happen to her health during these almost two months," she told Israel's Channel 12.

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Increased supplies of food, water, medicine and fuel promised under the deal began to roll into Gaza, where U.N. officials had warned that Israel's seal on the territory threatened to push it to starvation. Former Palestinian prisoners who were released by the Israeli authorities, fly Palestinian and Hamas flags while they are carried on people's shoulders upon their arrival in the West Bank town of Beitunia, on Nov. 24, 2023. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser) But relief has been tempered -- among Israelis by the fact that not all hostages will be freed and among Palestinians by the briefness of the pause. The short truce leaves Gaza mired in humanitarian crisis and under the threat that fighting could soon resume. Sulphur dioxide can cause severe irritation to the eyes, mucous membranes, skin and respiratory tract, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Inhalation exposure to very low concentrations of sulphur dioxide can aggravate chronic pulmonary diseases. Symptoms of sulphur dioxide respiratory irritation include sneezing, sore throat, wheezing, breath shortness, chest tightness and a feeling of suffocation.