As dawn broke Friday, thousands of residents from Gaza City and the northern Strip streamed toward the Nuwairi area and the coastal al-Rashid Street, hoping to return to their homes after nearly a month of displacement.
Israeli forces initially blocked their passage before withdrawing around noon, clearing the way for hundreds of thousands to pour northward on foot and in vehicles.
The Israeli army announced that the ceasefire had taken effect at 12 p.m. local time in both Palestine and Saudi Arabia, though the truce was meant to begin earlier after Israel’s government voted overnight to approve the agreement.
Joy and ruin
Videos posted by journalists, activists, and remaining residents showed scenes of jubilation as Gazans made their way back through shattered neighborhoods. Despite the devastation, many said they were overjoyed simply to return.
Safaa al-Hannawi, 41, from Shati refugee camp west of Gaza City, said she had been waiting since early morning in Nuwairi near the Netzarim axis, hoping to reach her home, uncertain whether it was completely destroyed or partially damaged as she had left it a month ago.
“I can’t describe how happy I am to be back in the spirit of my life,” she said, referring to Gaza City and her neighborhood. Al-Hannawi said she planned to bring her tent from Mawasi Khan Younis and live in it if her home was gone. “But I won’t leave the area again,” she added.
Elsewhere, Yassine al-Barawi, a resident of Al-Nasr district in Gaza City, loaded his belongings into his car and immediately headed north as soon as Israeli forces announced civilians could return. His house was still standing, though damaged.
“I’d rather live in what’s left of my home than in a tent on barren farmland with nothing to sustain life,” he told Asharq Al-Awsat. “When they said we could go back, I rushed to leave. I couldn’t believe it would actually happen, not after our first displacement that lasted more than a year and a half.”
Hours earlier, the roughly 130,000 people who remained in Gaza City had ventured out to survey what was left of their homes and neighborhoods, many reduced to rubble by Israeli operations in recent weeks.
Widespread destruction
Nour Yaghi, 37, from the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in northern Gaza City, said he reached his area early Friday after sheltering near Gaza’s port in recent weeks only to find it obliterated.
“The devastation is beyond description,” Yaghi said. “Our house and the neighboring ones are just piles of rubble. Seventy percent of Sheikh Radwan is gone, destroyed by booby-trapped military vehicles and airstrikes.”
Mousa al-Najjar from al-Shati camp said entire housing blocks had been flattened. “It will take months just to clear the main roads,” he said. “Anyone returning from the south won’t even recognize where their house once stood.”
According to Gaza’s municipality, more than 85 percent of the city has been destroyed. Medical sources said over 73 bodies were recovered from streets and homes in Gaza City after Israeli troops withdrew, while at least 20 more were found in Khan Younis.
Hamas forces reemerge
Hamas security forces were seen redeploying in parts of central and southern Gaza, as well as on the outskirts of Gaza City. The Interior Ministry in Gaza said its security services would begin restoring order in areas vacated by the Israeli army and “address the chaos the occupation sought to spread over the past two years.”
The Israeli military, meanwhile, warned residents to avoid several “highly dangerous” areas, including Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahia, Shujaiyya, and parts of Khan Younis near the Philadelphi corridor and Rafah crossing.
Military spokesperson Brig. Gen. Effi Defrin said Hamas “is no longer what it was when the war began two years ago. It has been defeated everywhere we fought it.” He urged civilians to stay away from Israeli-controlled zones to ensure their safety.
Gaza’s toll
In a statement marking the ceasefire, the Hamas-run Government Media Office accused Israel of committing “a full-scale genocide” in Gaza, using food, water, and medicine as weapons of war. It said Israel had destroyed 90 percent of the enclave’s civilian infrastructure and seized more than 80 percent of its territory through invasion and forced displacement.
The office estimated that Israel dropped more than 200,000 tons of explosives on Gaza and bombed the Mawasi area over 150 times despite designating it a “safe humanitarian zone.”
According to its figures, some 77,000 Palestinians were killed or remain missing, including more than 20,000 children and 12,500 women. About 67,000 bodies have been recovered, while 9,500 people remain unaccounted for. Over 1,000 infants under one year old were among the dead, including 450 newborns killed during the war, it said.
The report said more than 39,000 families were wiped out in airstrikes, and that women, children, and the elderly made up over half of all victims.
At least 1,670 medical workers, 140 civil defense members, 254 journalists, and more than 1,000 police and emergency responders were killed. Injuries totaled around 170,000, including thousands with amputations, paralysis, or blindness. Over 6,700 detainees, including medical and media staff, remain in Israeli custody under harsh conditions.
Gaza’s health system has “completely collapsed,” the office said, with 38 hospitals destroyed, hundreds of attacks on health facilities, and more than 788 assaults on medical services. Israel also destroyed 670 schools, 165 universities and educational institutions, killing 13,500 students, 830 teachers, and nearly 200 academics.
The statement added that 835 mosques were completely destroyed, several churches were damaged, and 40 cemeteries were razed. Israeli forces allegedly exhumed more than 2,450 bodies and established seven mass graves inside hospitals.
Nearly 300,000 housing units were demolished and 200,000 others heavily damaged, displacing about two million people. Many remain in tattered tents under dire humanitarian conditions.
The office accused Israel of using starvation as a weapon, keeping Gaza’s crossings closed for over 600 days and blocking thousands of aid trucks, resulting in more than 460 deaths from hunger and malnutrition. It estimated Gaza’s direct economic losses at over $70 billion after two years of war.
