Palestinians in Gaza took advantage of the truce between Israel and Hamas to return home and clear the rubble

After seven weeks of bombing that ended in the Gaza Strip thanks to a four-day ceasefire, Tahani al-Najjar took the opportunity to return to the ruins of his home, destroyed by an Israeli airstrike that he told Reuters killed seven family members and forced her into hiding at the shelter.

“When they said there was a truce, we came to see our houses. We saw this, as you can see, complete destruction. In every war, the house is destroyed. How long will we stay like this? How long will we suffer from destruction,” said Tahani al-Najjar.

But like Tahani, thousands of Gazans have taken advantage of the lack of attacks to flee public shelters and makeshift camps to find out what happened to their homes.

“Where will we live? Where are we going? We are trying to collect pieces of wood to build a tent to shelter, but in vain. There is nothing that can accommodate a family,” Najar said, rummaging through the rubble. of what went to his home.

Najar, 58, a mother of five, lived in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip. The woman said that the Israeli military had already destroyed her home in two previous conflicts, in 2008 and 2014. From under the rubble she pulled out several undamaged cups. “We will rebuild the situation again,” he told Reuters.

He currently lives in a center for displaced people, which he calls an “epidemic” due to the diseases affecting the people there in dire conditions, with limited access to water, sanitation, fuel, and much-needed and scarce food. nutrition and medicines. .

For many of the 2.3 million people living in the Gaza Strip, the humanitarian pause is their first opportunity to move around safely. At open markets and aid warehouses, thousands of people are lining up to receive some of the aid that has already begun to flow into Gaza. This Friday, 196 aid trucks transported food, water and medicine through the Rafah crossing, the largest aid convoy since October 7.