An excavator removes rubble from the heavily damaged Al-Jalaa Street in Gaza City.
Photo Abdel Kareem Hana/AP
Bulldozers try to clear rubble in Gaza City for Palestinians returning after the peace deal between Israel and Hamas. At least 83 percent of all buildings in Gaza City have been damaged by Israeli attacks, a report shows analysis from satellite images by the United Nations. Images show residents returning to skeletons of buildings, debris, and rubble since last week.
Thousands of Palestinians are returning to Gaza City and other northern areas in the hope of finding something of what was once their home. “We are happy to be back in Gaza City, but at the same time we have bitter feelings about the destruction,” Rami Mohammad Ali told the news agency by telephone on Sunday Reuters. He walked back for miles with his son. On their route they saw human remains lying along the roads.
“There is nothing to look forward to,” Mahmoud Abo Emeira tells the news channel Al Jazeeraas he stands in front of the ruins of his home in Gaza City. “Just this place alone makes you devastated. Imagine your home, your memories, your work, your school, your whole world being destroyed.”
Displaced Palestinians walk among the rubble of houses.
Gazans view the remains of houses in Gaza City.
A Palestinian man inspects the remains of a destroyed house in Gaza City.
Displaced Palestinians walk with their belongings along a road in Gaza City.
Photo Abdel Kareem Hana/AP
According to Gazan authorities, a total of 300,000 homes in Gaza have been destroyed.
Photo MOHAMMED SABER/EPA
The rubble is cleared for returning Gazans and searched to recover bodies. Rescue workers continue to search, including for possible survivors.
Palestinians now face the difficult task of rebuilding their homes and lives, with the little energy they often have left after two years of flight, hunger and exhaustion. Severe famine continues to grip Gaza, and the negative health effects of malnutrition may persist for a long time or never disappear.
The UN was cautiously optimistic about the humanitarian aid that was admitted on Sunday after a long delay. Supplies of cooking gas entered Gaza for the first time since March.
Hussein Karsoua, a displaced Palestinian journalist who returned to his largely destroyed home, predicted against Al Jazeera that the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip will take a very long time. “We will continue to live in the middle for a long time, between life and death. There is nothing.”
A bulldozer removes debris.
Photo Abdel Kareem Hana/AP
A satellite photo of part of Gaza City.
Photo Labs PBC via AP
“Is this Gaza? Is that what is left of Gaza? Is this a life?” asks Shreen Abu al-Yakhni, writes the AP news agency. “We are returning to a place with no houses and no shelter for our children, and winter is coming.” An estimated 300,000 tents are needed to provide temporary shelter for 1.5 million displaced Palestinians.
According to the Palestinian authorities 140,000 people have been injured in the war that followed on October 7, 2023. Much of the water infrastructure has been destroyed, leaving 96 percent of households no access has enough water. Also agricultural land and roads are largely destroyed. According to UNICEF 95 percent of schools are damaged or in ruins.
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Drone footage of Gaza city.
Reuters
Palestinians on their way back to their hometown.
Photo BASHAR TALEB/AFP
Two Palestinian girls pull a cart full of belongings on their way back to what was once their home.
Photo Abdel Kareem Hana/AP
Displaced Palestinians walk with their belongings along the heavily damaged Al-Jalaa Street in Gaza City.
Photo Abdel Kareem Hana/AP
Rescuers are warning Palestinians returning north about ammunition and bombs that may not have yet exploded.
“We returned to the north before after destruction. But this time we were shocked by what we saw,” displaced Farah Saleh told the AP news agency. “The further we walk, the more amazed we are.”
Hunger and water shortage have weakened people considerably.
Photo Ebrahim Hajjaj/REUTERS
Palestinians travel via the so-called Netzarim corridor from Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip to Gaza City.
Photo Eyad BABA/AFP
Thousands of exhausted Palestinians return to their homes in ruins.
Photo AFP
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