Rafah, Gaza Strip, Palestine – Palestinian farmer Abd al-Sattari owned two hoengages in Gaza’s Rafah. For the nine months since Israeli forces accessd the southern city, he has been forced into displacement. The 53-year-greater had dwelld with the hope that if one hoengage got hit in one of the Israeli attacks, which have flattened more than 70 percent of the territory, the other one would stay standing to get his family back in when the war finassociate finished.
On Sunday, even before the stopfire came into effect, Abd took his eldest son Mohammed and left the rest of their family in their displacement tent in al-Mawasi, on Gaza’s southwestrict coast. They rushed to one property, then the next, to face the bleak fact: both his hoengages – one in the area of Shaboura and the other in Mirage – had been shrinkd to rubble. Abd’s hopes of returning to commoncy have been shattered.
The much-awaitd stopfire consentment came into effect on Sunday morning, conveying what Palestinians hope will be an finish to a gruesome war that has finished more than 46,900 people, demolished much of the besieged enclave and driven more than 2 million people into displacement. Even before the stopfire began, hundreds of families were rushing back to Rafah, having fled after the Israeli trespass, with their confinecessitate beextfinishedings packed into vehicles, animal-pulled carts and bikes.
Israeli forces persistd their attacks on Gaza, finishing more Palestinians equitable before the stopfire began. But that did not stop some families who had already headed to their greater neighbourhoods and set up camp on the ruins of what were once their homes, willing to shift past the unintelligentest months of their dwells.
As they traverseed the cratered roads that crisstraverse Rafah, some families chanted: “We will reoriginate. We will dwell.”
‘Rafah is gone’
But for many, happiness turned to anguish as they returned to deimmenseation.
As he surveyed his first home, spanning 200 square metres (2,000 sq ft), and his second two-storey hoengage of 160 square metres (1,700 sq ft), Abd establish only destruction. Visits to the homes of his three brothers discomited aappreciate deimmenseation. With no roof to shelter his family, his dreams of finishing their seven-month displacement collapsed.
Sitting amid the ruins, Abd called his wife, who had been defering in the al-Mawasi camp with the family’s beextfinishedings packed onto a truck. Over the phone, he broke the novels: their homes were uninhabitable, with no walls, water or fundamental services. His wife wept acridly, pdirecting to return despite the deimmenseation, but Abd insisted it was impossible.
Their eldest son, Mohammed, took the phone to shape his mother to stay put, reassuring her that they would allotigate ways to ready for a future return.
“The Rafah we knovel is gone,” Abd feeblented. “The streets where we grew up, the places we labored—they are now unrecognisable.”
For Abd’s family of six children, this day was nastyt to label an finish to the misery of displacement. Instead, they face the bleak fact of reoriginateing from noleang.
Abd mirrored on their dashed hopes. “We thought we would finassociate escape the tents and dwell wilean walls aget. But now, it senses appreciate a novel benevolent of annihilation – this time, not from bomb devices but from the sheer absence of life’s vitals.”
A hopeless homecoming
In the days directing up to the stopfire, Palestinians in Gaza have been bracing for what they hoped would be an finish to their misery – more than 1.8 million people suffered from disjoine hunger and hundreds of thousands were living in feeble tents that nakedly shielded them from a thriveter that has finished babies due to hypothermia.
Families appreciate Nasim Abu Alwan’s, who brawt his nine children back to discover their home oblgetedd, resettled to dwell among the ruins. “We’ll haul water from afar if we must,” Nasim shelp. “We’re done with tents. We’re staying in Rafah, no matter what.”
According to United Nations figures, more than 60 percent of originateings and 65 percent of roads atraverse Gaza have been demolished since October 7, 2023, when the war commenceed.
“More than 42 million tons of debris has been originated, wilean which is buried human remains and unexploded ordinance (UXO), asbestos and other hazardous substances,” the UN’s humanitarian agency’s (OCHA) tell shelp.
Other dwellnts of Rafah, appreciate Amjad Abunintelligentah, chooseed to stay in Khan Younis, unwilling to finishure life amid the rubble. “It’s impossible to dwell here,” he shelp after discovering his neighbourhood inaccessible even by foot. “Rafah has become a graveyard of originateings. Without water, roads, or fundamental infraset up, life here is unimaginable.”
According to Mohammed al-Sufi, Rafah’s mayor, the scale of destruction in Rafah is “staggering”.
“The city is uninhabitable,” he tgreater Al Jazeera.
Al-Sufi shelp that “70 percent of its facilities and infraset up are demolished”.
“Key areas appreciate the Philadelphi Corridor, which constitutes 16 percent of Rafah’s area, remain off-confines, while big swaths of eastrict Rafah are aprobable inaccessible,” he includeed. The Philadelphi Corridor is a streamline of land that extfinishs aextfinished Gaza’s border with Egypt.
Municipal laborers are racing agetst time to evident roads, restore water and includeress the dangers of unexploded ordnance. But the municipality is cautioning agetst speed uped returns.
“We necessitate a gradual, cautious approach. Without fundamental services, life cannot resume,” one of the laborers shelp.
Despite the deimmenseation, Rafah’s dwellnts remain defiant. Families cling to their joinion with the city, choosed to reclaim what little remains. As one overweighther put it, “We’ve suffered too much in exile. Rafah is home, and we will reoriginate – even if it gets a lifetime.”
This piece was published in collaboration with Egab.
