Joy gives way to dismay as Palestinians in Gaza return to the ruins of their homes

euronews (in English)

15 months of the most intensive fighting ever seen between the IDF and Hamas have reduced vast swathes of Gaza to rubble and rebuilding is expected to take decades.

Transcript

00:00Celebrations in Gaza after the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas came into effect have turned

00:07to dismay as people begin returning to the ruins of their homes.

00:11Part of phase one sees IDF forces withdraw from densely populated areas and allow thousands

00:17of displaced Palestinians to return home.

00:20But as many found out on Sunday, there often wasn't anything to return to.

00:25Fifteen months of the most intensive fighting ever seen between the IDF and Hamas have reduced

00:30vast swathes of Gaza to rubble.

00:32And that was the sight that greeted people returning to the southern city of Khan Yunus.

00:37International experts say that Khan Yunus is the city that suffered the heaviest destruction

00:41of all settlements in Gaza.

00:43IDF forces withdrew from the city on Sunday after a fierce four-month battle against Hamas,

00:49the longest ground operation of the war.

00:51There were similar scenes in the north of the strip.

00:54Jabalia is home to the territory's largest refugee camp, and most of the structures

00:58there have been flattened.

01:00The camp was the scene of a renewed military operation which started in October last year.

01:05The IDF said it reinvaded the area in a bid to dismantle what it called a Hamas command

01:10and control center.

01:12Meanwhile, residents returning to Rafah found scenes of mass destruction across the city

01:16that was once a hub for displaced families.

01:20Some say they found human remains among the rubble of buildings.

01:23A local hospital director said the city's health system is completely out of service.

01:28In Rafah, there are at least three hospitals, in Gaza there are at least five hospitals,

01:35and in the northern part of Gaza we need three field hospitals so that the health system

01:40can recover from there.

01:42If we renovate some of the hospitals, but most of the hospitals in the Gaza Strip have

01:47been destroyed.

01:48They need to be rebuilt.

01:52The toll of the war has been immense and new details of its scope will now begin to emerge.

01:58Rebuilding if the ceasefire reaches its third and final phase is expected to take years.

02:03In their interim damage assessment report issued last year, the EU, UN and World Bank

02:08put the cost of rebuilding Gaza's critical infrastructure at 17.9 billion euros.

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