As the sounds of Israeli artillery shells and airstrikes finally fall silent as a result of last week’s ceasefire, the full scale of the destruction and the grim details of atrocities committed during two years of relentless bombardment are slowly emerging across the Gaza Strip.
According to initial estimates, the war has left around 68,000 Palestinians dead, 180,000 injured, and 10,000 missing, while international reports indicate that Israel has destroyed nearly 80 per cent of Gaza’s buildings and infrastructure, leaving the enclave without water, electricity, fuel, or medical care, in other words without the basic means of life itself.
Nearly 1.9 million displaced Gazans have begun returning to their towns and neighbourhoods, only to find nothing left standing. Their homes are flattened, streets reduced to fields of rubble, and the essential services of water and power are gone. Many returnees say that even the tents they brought with them from displacement centres have nowhere to be pitched.
The Gaza Civil Defence announced that around half a million Palestinians have returned to Gaza City and northern areas since the Egypt-brokered ceasefire agreement took effect in Sharm El-Sheikh, even as the scale of the devastation continues to unfold.
By the end of the second day of the truce, waves of displaced families were still making their way from central and southern Gaza towards the north on foot or in makeshift carts, carrying what little they own. Along Al-Rashid and Salaheddin roads, entire families have been walking with children in their arms and a few bags of belongings, many of them with no homes to return to.
Some have walked 15 km from Khan Younis to Gaza City on what they described as an exhausting journey through the ruins. Many were in tears upon seeing their neighbourhoods completely obliterated.
The ceasefire came into effect last Friday morning, marking the end of two years of what Palestinians describe as a genocidal war. The Israeli military announced its withdrawal towards the so-called yellow line, in line with the terms of the agreement approved by Israel’s government the previous night.
Palestinian journalist Salameh Nabil said the full extent of the catastrophe began to appear immediately after the ceasefire and the reopening of routes to the north and central areas such as Deir Al-Balah. “When we reached our neighbourhoods, we found total destruction and no sign of life,” he told Al-Ahram Weekly.
“The Israeli forces had uprooted everything – every home, every street, every mosque and church, and every tree,” he said. “What we saw were not houses but memories of a life erased. We began to ask ourselves: how will we live, and where will we go?”
“True, the bombs have stopped,” he added, “but we don’t know where to sleep or how to rebuild our homes. This ceasefire has come with no shelter, no food, no life at all. We hear that 400 aid trucks will enter daily, but that’s not enough.”
Local municipalities have warned of an environmental disaster, he said, noting that the northern areas of the Nuseirat Refugee Camp and the eastern parts of the central governorate have been turned into vast piles of debris.
“The occupation didn’t leave a single house standing. The entire area is in ruins,” Nabil said.
The Government Media Office in Gaza said that more than 90 per cent of civilian infrastructure and 300,000 housing units have been destroyed. According to Amjad Al-Shawa, head of the Palestinian NGO Network, 1.5 million people have lost their homes.
Yahya A-Sarraj, mayor of Gaza City, said the municipality’s top priority is to prepare for the return of displaced families from the south. “Our capacities are almost nonexistent,” he told reporters. “But we are in contact with several bodies to secure the necessary equipment as soon as possible.”
He added that the municipality still has not received the equipment it requested, including electrical generators, spare parts, and heavy machinery, all needed to reopen the main roads for the expected influx of aid convoys.
“The international community must urgently provide tents and caravans to help families survive the coming winter,” Al-Sarraj said.
He noted that over 85 per cent of the municipality’s heavy machinery has been destroyed, severely hampering reconstruction efforts. The municipality has submitted a three-phase recovery plan for Gaza’s local governments, currently under review by international partners.
“Providing water, clearing streets, collecting waste, and repairing sewage systems are now our most urgent priorities,” he stressed. “We are working under immense pressure, amid vast destruction and a total lack of resources.”
DEVASTATION: Journalist Salameh Younis told the Weekly that “the questions on everyone’s mind now are where will we go? What awaits us? Will we spend the winter in torn tents?”
“I can tell you that words cannot express our suffering. We are searching for the basics of life – food, water, shelter. The fear that haunted us during the war has now been replaced by the agony of survival.”
“We don’t know what to do,” he continued. “Our memories, our clothes, our belongings – everything is buried under the rubble. The destruction is beyond description, beyond sound or image. We are living in uncertainty, not knowing what comes next.”
“There is nothing to eat, nowhere for our children or elderly to sleep,” he said. “Even finding space for a tent has become a struggle. There are no services and no healthcare and no education. This is a full-scale humanitarian catastrophe. We don’t know if this truce will hold or if we’ll return to war again. We survived the bombs, but will we survive life after them?”
Mahmoud Basal, a spokesperson for Gaza’s Civil Defence, said that teams are now focused on recovering bodies from beneath the rubble. “Since the ceasefire began, we have retrieved 150 bodies,” he said, adding that around 9,500 people remain missing.
Since the start of what Palestinians call a war of extermination on 7 October 2023, Israel has blocked the entry of humanitarian aid, medical supplies, and fuel into Gaza, allowing in only limited amounts for international organisations that do not meet public needs.
Munir Al-Bursh, director-general of Gaza’s Health Ministry, said that out of 38 hospitals in the Strip, all have been targeted, with only 16 partially operational. Before the war, Gaza’s hospitals had 6,000 beds, but now only 2,000 remain functional, he said.
He added that 50 per cent of essential medicines are lacking, while 65 per cent of medical supplies have run out.
The targeting and persecution of medical staff has resulted in 1,671 health workers killed and around 362 detained by Israeli forces since the beginning of the war, Al-Bursh said.
According to United Nations estimates, more than 1.9 million Palestinians, about 85 per cent of Gaza’s population, have been displaced from their homes. Around 1.7 million now live in makeshift shelters or overcrowded camps that lack the basic necessities of life.
Reports from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) indicate that about 70 per cent of the residential buildings in Gaza have been either completely or partially destroyed, making reconstruction one of the largest humanitarian tasks in modern history.
The UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA estimates that the enclave urgently needs at least 400,000 tents or temporary housing units to address the massive humanitarian gap, as families across Gaza face dire shortages of drinking water, electricity, and essential health services.
The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) estimates that 1.1 million people are in urgent need of emergency shelter assistance.
UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric stressed the critical need to restore Gaza’s infrastructure to enable recovery.
“There is an urgent need to open additional crossings, ensure the safe movement of aid workers and civilians, allow the unrestricted entry of goods, issue visas for staff, and provide space for us and our NGO partners to operate in accordance with humanitarian principles,” Dujarric said.
He appealed to world leaders supporting the Gaza ceasefire to help the UN create the conditions necessary for unhindered humanitarian operations and to generously fund the relief response.
Earlier on Sunday morning, 400 aid trucks carrying food, medical supplies, and relief materials began moving towards Gaza through the Rafah Crossing, en route to the Kerem Shalom and Nitzana (Al-Auja) crossings, according to Egyptian media reports.
Around 90 trucks passed through Rafah within the first hour, marking the first convoy via Al-Auja since March, given the high volume of expected shipments.
Thousands of aid trucks remain on standby, waiting for clearance to enter Gaza following the ceasefire and prisoner-exchange agreement reached between Israel and Hamas this week.
MEDICAL NEEDS: The Gaza Ministry of Health has reported that over 70 per cent of healthcare facilities are now out of service, including the largest hospitals in Gaza City and the north.
It estimates that rebuilding the health sector will require more than $7 billion to reconstruct hospitals, clinics, and secure essential medicines and equipment.
Jinan Saad, regional media officer for the NGO Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), emphasised the urgent need for both internal rehabilitation plans and medical evacuation programmes for thousands of wounded people requiring complex treatment abroad.
“The ceasefire must be accompanied by an immediate, large scale, and sustained flow of humanitarian and medical aid throughout Gaza, including the north, without any obstacles and with the entry of medical teams,” Saad said.
She warned that the medical, psychological, and material needs in Gaza are “overwhelming,” adding that the population urgently requires basic necessities such as medical supplies, food, water, fuel, and adequate shelter for the two million people facing the coming winter without roofs over their heads.
“Rebuilding the healthcare sector is a prerequisite for Gaza’s recovery,” Saad added. “There are 168,000 injured people, many with complex wounds, and thousands suffering from malnutrition and waterborne diseases, while the healthcare system is on the brink of collapse.”
The first phase of the ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel took effect at noon last Friday, following its approval by the Israeli government early that morning. Israeli forces began withdrawing from Gaza City, except for the Shujaiyya neighbourhood and parts of Al-Tuffah and Al-Zaytoun.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 16 October, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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