In cars, on carts, and by foot, emerging from the shadows of war and displacement, tens of thousands of Gazans for the first time are returning to their communities and assessing the monumental task of rebuilding homes and lives shattered by 15 months of conflict.
Under the terms of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire, displaced Palestinians in central Gaza are not able to return to Gaza City and northern Gaza until Jan. 26, when humanitarian groups say hundreds of thousands of people will be migrating northward on foot.
Why We Wrote This
When the Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement was announced, Palestinian residents of Gaza celebrated. But as they return to what is left of their homes, the destruction they are finding is almost too much to comprehend.
But in the south, displaced residents who have been living in tents are returning to their old neighborhoods to see what is left of them.
When the ceasefire took effect at 11:30 a.m. Sunday, Ramadan Hassan rushed to his neighborhood in Rafah on foot.
“It’s like 10 earthquakes hit Rafah all at once,” he says in disbelief, walking through the rubble-strewn streets of the once-vibrant Shaboura refugee camp.
The before and after of Israel’s invasion and military offensive is stark. “I cannot fathom the destruction,” Mr. Hassan says.
His home was entirely destroyed. “It’s a lot to comprehend,” he whispers.
As soon as the Israel-Hamas ceasefire was announced late last week, Ramadan Hassan ran from the tent in Deir al-Balah, where he had been living, to get as close as possible to his hometown of Rafah.
Israeli shelling and airstrikes were ongoing, yet early Sunday he staked out a space to wait at the European Hospital near the edge of Rafah.
When the ceasefire finally took effect at 11:30 a.m. that day, he rushed to his home.
Why We Wrote This
When the Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement was announced, Palestinian residents of Gaza celebrated. But as they return to what is left of their homes, the destruction they are finding is almost too much to comprehend.
Or, rather, what was left of his home. What he found was devastation.
“It’s like 10 earthquakes hit Rafah all at once,” Mr. Hassan says in disbelief, walking with a Monitor reporter through the rubble-strewn streets of the once-vibrant Shaboura refugee camp in Rafah.
The before and after of Israel’s invasion and military offensive is stark. “I cannot fathom the destruction,” he says.
The familiar doorway to his house is now a jagged opening. His home has been entirely destroyed.
“At night, I can’t sleep. It’s a lot to comprehend,” he whispers.
In cars, on carts, and by foot, emerging from the shadows of war, tens of thousands of Gazans are returning to their communities for the first time and assessing the monumental task of rebuilding homes and lives shattered by 15 months of conflict.
Under the terms of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire, displaced Palestinians in central Gaza are not able to return to Gaza City and northern Gaza until Jan. 26, when humanitarian groups expect hundreds of thousands of people to migrate northward on foot.
“The same cup of bitterness”
Until then, Palestinians from southern Gaza regions such as Rafah and Khan Yunis, which Israel cleared several months ago in devastating military offensives, are returning to the ruins of their communities from their displacement camps in central Gaza and along the coast.
As Mr. Hassan films quick videos of the destruction to share with his family, he encounters neighbors – like him, recent returnees. Their faces mirror his grief.
“We all tasted from the same cup of bitterness,” he says.
While he is in Rafah, his anxious brothers and sisters in displacement camps back in Deir al-Balah keep calling him, asking for news of their homes. But phone connections are poor in the southern Gaza strip; signals are as fractured as the landscape.
When Mr. Hassan returns to Deir al-Balah, he finds his siblings packing bags to return to Rafah. Only then does he break the news: “It’s all gone. Rafah is like a ghost city – no water, no electricity, no infrastructure. No streets. Nothing remains but rubble.”
His sister Khawla Barbari, a widow and mother of five, had held onto the hope that her house, in another neighborhood, might still stand. “I thought maybe mine was safe,” she says.
But when she ventures to her home in Rafah’s Al Junaina neighborhood, Ms. Barbari finds only a rubble-strewn patch of dusty ground, littered with human skeletons.
“I don’t know why I hoped it would still be standing,” she laments, surveying the destruction.
50 million tons of rubble
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), about 436,000 homes — 92% of housing in the Gaza strip — were destroyed or damaged as a result of Israel’s military offensive. More than 90% of Palestinians in Gaza are homeless, according to the U.N., and there is an urgent need for tents and other shelters.
The overwhelming majority of the 600 aid trucks that are now entering Gaza every day are carrying food and medical supplies. The first truckload of tents, sent by Jordan, arrived in Gaza on Thursday.
The U.N. estimates that the war has littered Gaza with more than 50 million tons of rubble.
Ramy al-Za’inin made the difficult journey on foot from Gaza City to his home in Beit Hanoun, at the northern edge of Gaza, hiking over mounds of unstable rubble, his legs swollen and bruised from the effort.
Mr. Za’inin had seen images of his hometown that had circulated on social media, but nothing could have prepared him to see the devastation with his own eyes.
“The destruction is far more extensive than I imagined. There’s no Beit Hanoun left, no borders,” Mr. Za’inin says.
He began filming the ruins for relatives who had evacuated to southern Gaza. “This is your house,” he narrated, pointing his smartphone at the rubble.
Said Qudeih, a social media influencer and aid worker in Turkey, has revived his organization, Meeting Initiative, that in May 2024 assisted Gazans fleeing from the Israeli offensive and relocated them safely elsewhere in the strip.
Now, the organization is providing fuel for thousands of Gazans’ cars and trucks, and financial assistance to help people hire trucks or donkey carts to return home.
“They need our support now more than before. It has been over 15 months of war, with no work. People are homeless and have no money,” Mr. Qudeih says.
Ibrahim al-Sheikh Eid hired a motorized tuk-tuk to return to the Al Junaina district in Rafah. He erected a tent over the rubble of his home, determined to reclaim his own space amid the chaos.
“It’s all destroyed,” he says, “but a tent here is better than a tent on someone else’s land.”
Special correspondent Taylor Luck contributed to this story from Amman, Jordan.
