Men, women and children travelled from the places where they have sought refuge to inspect their damaged homes.

Palestinians who had taken refuge in temporary shelters return to their homes in eastern Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip during the first hours of a four-day truce [Mahmud Hams/AFP]

With children and pets in their arms and their belongings loaded onto donkey carts or car roofs, thousands of displaced Gaza Palestinians have set off for home as a four-day Israel-Hamas truce began.

The din of war was replaced on Friday by the horns of traffic jams and sirens of ambulances making their way through crowds emerging from hospitals and schools where they had taken refuge.

For nearly seven weeks, Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip had been relentless.

Some 1.7 million of the territory’s 2.4 million people are estimated to have been displaced, and more than half of homes damaged or destroyed, the United Nations says.

But on Friday morning, no shots were heard in Khan Younis, in the south of the Palestinian territory.

Crowds of men, women and children travelled on foot, carts or tuk-tuks with the few belongings they had taken with them when the war started.

Large parts of Gaza have been flattened by thousands of air raids, and the territory faces shortages of food, water and fuel.

Israeli warplanes dropped leaflets warning people in the south not to head back to the north, where it had previously told Palestinians to leave for their safety.

“The war is not over yet,” they read. “Returning to the north is forbidden and very dangerous!!!”

Palestinians inspect their destroyed houses in the town of Kazaa, eastern Khan Younis. [Mohammed Dahman/AP Photo]

Palestinians walk through debris upon their return to Khan Younis to inspect their homes following weeks of Israeli bombardment. [Mahmud Hams/AFP]

A Palestinian man walks among the ruins of his house. [Mohammed Dahman/AP Photo]

A family searches among the rubble of their home amid the temporary truce between Hamas and Israel. [Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters]

Some 1.7 million of the territory’s 2.4 million people are estimated to have been displaced. [Mohammed Dahman/AP Photo]

More than half of homes are estimated to have been damaged or destroyed. [Mahmud Hams/AFP]

A man carries belongings from his home in Khezaa district of Khan Younis. [Mahmud Hams/AFP]

Palestinians who had taken refuge in temporary shelters return to their homes in eastern Khan Younis during the first hours of a four-day truce. [Mahmud Hams/AFP]

Palestinian men embrace each other near a house destroyed in an Israeli attack during the conflict, amid the temporary truce. [Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters]

Palestinians try to cross back into northern Gaza as an Israeli tank blocked the Salah al-Din Road in the central Gaza Strip on Friday. [Hatem Moussa/AP Photo]