Gazans return to ruins as fragile truce holds

As a tenuous ceasefire continues, displaced residents are filtering back into parts of Gaza City to scenes of widespread devastation. In the Al-Maqussi Towers district in the northwest, apartment blocks pulverised by months of bombardment line deserted streets, forcing returnees to set up makeshift shelters among the rubble.

One resident, Hossam Majed, salvaged what he could, including a water tank—a precious resource given the collapse of utilities. With electricity, communications and clean water scarce, many families are sweeping out debris and guarding what remains of their homes while waiting for relatives to rejoin them.

Umm Rami Lubbad, who fled south to Khan Yunis last month, said hopes of stability were dashed when she found her house flattened. Now homeless with her children, she spends nights outdoors or relies on neighbours for temporary refuge, gathering wood and clothing to cobble together a temporary shelter and basic sanitation.

Ahmad al-Abbasi returned to discover his five-storey building gone. He has since erected a rudimentary tent using cinder blocks, iron rods and a sheet, a Palestinian flag nearby snapping in the wind over a landscape he describes as a ghost town. Another resident, Mustafa Mahram, said his family has been “thrown into the street”—there is no drinkable water and little food.

Across the city, residents say they are trying to rescue any usable belongings and assemble a single livable room or tent as they wait for broader relief. Supplies remain limited, and the struggle for essentials continues even as the guns fall largely silent.