STORY: :: From celebration to reality: Gazans return home to find ruin and devastation

:: January 19, 2025

:: Nuseirat, Gaza

:: Jomaa Shadi, Displaced person

“The halting of the bloodshed is an indescribable feeling. I thank God that I survived this war safely. However, when we returned to our homes, we found nothing but ruin and destruction. I cannot describe the scene in words. I don’t know what to say.”

:: Safatawi, Gaza

“I built this house piece by piece, and when I returned to it, I didn’t find it as I knew it. All I see is devastation and ruin. I don’t see my home; I only see destruction.”

Drone footage released by the United Nations on Sunday revealed vast destruction in the Safatawi area in northern Gaza as those displaced began returning to bombed-out neighbourhoods.

More than 47,000 Palestinians have since been killed in Israeli attacks, according to medical officials in Gaza. Nearly the entire 2.3 million population of Gaza is homeless. Around 400 Israeli soldiers have also died.

The truce calls for fighting to stop, aid to be sent into Gaza and 33 of the nearly 100 remaining Israeli and foreign hostages to go free over the six-week first phase in return for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. Many of the hostages are believed to be dead.