Gazans return to their homes after the start of the truce between Israel and Hamas

Open Editor’s Digest for free

Rula Khalaf, editor of the Financial Times, picks her favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians returned to Gaza City on Friday, heading north along the enclave’s coastal road after the Israeli military announced a ceasefire with Hamas had entered into force.

Many returnees were forced out of Gaza’s largest city just last month due to Israeli air strikes and a ground incursion. They traveled on foot, amidst a stream of humanity, searching for the remains of their lives after the start of the truce, which they hope will be an end to the war that has been going on for two years.

Most were men who came alone to check if their homes were still livable so they could bring home their wives, children and elderly parents who had taken refuge in overcrowded and squalid conditions in the south.

For Palestinians who had endured 24 months of bombing, fear, hunger and displacement, it was a bittersweet moment. Ceasefire relief has been marred by the pain of returning to devastated cities, where almost nothing remains.

Among the participants in the march was Othman, an engineering graduate who arrived at the ruins of the Al-Nasr neighborhood, north of Gaza City, to find that his house, which he had left three weeks ago, had been razed to the ground. There was nothing left of it.

“I found nothing but destruction. No house, no street,” said Othman, whose family rebuilt parts of the house this year after they were damaged earlier in the war.

“There can be no going back. You can’t even see the landmarks of the area. Who is going to rebuild all of this?”

The Israeli military said on Friday that it had completed a partial withdrawal from its front lines in Gaza under conditions agreed upon as part of US President Donald Trump’s ceasefire agreement, opening roads leading to Gaza City that had been completely surrounded by Israeli tanks and troops.

The withdrawal was part of the first phase of the peace plan, and resulted in Hamas being given a 72-hour deadline to release all Israeli hostages still being held in the Strip – 20 of whom are believed to be alive.

This is scheduled to be followed by the release of nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons, and increased aid to Gaza.

However, the second phase of the agreement, which aims for a permanent end to the war, has not yet been negotiated, and diplomats expect this to present a greater challenge. This will include the disarmament of Hamas and complete Israeli withdrawal.

Palestinian hopes for an end to the war have been dashed before: many made long journeys home during a short-lived ceasefire in January, but were displaced again when Israel broke the truce in March and launched new waves of attacks.

Israel bombed, bulldozed and bombed entire neighborhoods in Gaza City and other urban centers in the Strip. A UN assessment in August, based on satellite images, said 78 percent of buildings in Gaza were destroyed or damaged.

Israa Sami spent Friday scanning footage posted by Gaza City residents on social media to look for glimpses of her home in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood, which has been subjected to intense Israeli bombing.

Her mother and brother had set out, earlier today, from their tent in Al-Zawaida, in the central Gaza Strip, heading to the city.

Sami, a psychology graduate, said as she waited for a letter from her family: “The house is more precious to me than my life.” “I’m very nervous because so many people arrived only to find ruins.”

Later on Friday, she announced on Facebook: “The house is gone. We’re homeless… The last thing I had my hopes up for is gone. All I wanted was to go home, throw myself on my bed and cry.”

Others in Gaza realize they will find nothing.

Abu Aziz, from Beit Lahia, north of Gaza City near the Israeli border, said his family home and his supermarket were demolished early in the conflict, which was sparked by Hamas’ October 7, 2023, cross-border attack on Israel. The area is still under the control of the Israeli army.

Abu Aziz lives with his wife and four children in a tent on the coast in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip.

“We will stay here,” he added. “If I return home, it will be to search for winter clothes among the rubble and bring what is left of the wood in the building to use as fuel. Then I will leave Gaza as soon as that is possible.”