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.
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Celebrations that erupted in Gaza on Sunday morning after the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas came into effect have quickly given way to dismay as Palestinians begin returning to what’s left of their homes.
The three-phase agreement, agreed after a year of intensive mediation by the US, Egypt and Qatar, came into effect at 10:15CET after a short delay and part of the first stage makes provision for IDF forces to withdraw from densely-populated areas and allow thousands of displaced Palestinians to return home.
But as many found out on Sunday, there often wasn't anything to return to.
15 months of the most intensive fighting ever seen between the IDF and Hamas have reduced vast swathes of Gaza to rubble and that was the sight that greeted people returning to the southern city of Khan Younis.
Israeli bombardment and ground operations have transformed entire neighbourhoods there into a rubble-strewn wasteland, with blackened shells of buildings and mounds of debris stretching in all directions.
International experts say that Khan Younis is the city that has suffered the heaviest destruction of all settlements in Gaza.
IDF forces withdrew from the city on Sunday after a fierce four-month battle against Hamas, the longest ground operation in Gaza of the war.
Major roads have been ploughed up and critical water and electricity infrastructure lies in ruins.
There were similar scenes in the north of the Strip. Jabaliya is home to the territory's largest refugee camp and most of the structures there have been flattened.
The camp was the scene of a renewed military operation which started in October last year, with the IDF saying it had reinvaded the area in a bid to dismantle what it called a Hamas 'command and control centre' which had regrouped there.
That operation followed a chaotic civilian evacuation and left at least 70% of the area in ruins, according to Palestinian officials.
Meanwhile, residents returning to Rafah found scenes of mass destruction across the city that was once a hub for displaced families fleeing Israel’s bombardment elsewhere in the Palestinian enclave.
Some say they found human remains amid the rubble of buildings.
Marwan al-Hams, director of the now-destroyed Abu Youssef Al-Najjar Hospital, said that the city's health system is "completely out of service."
"We need field hospitals. In Rafah, we need at least three hospitals. In Gaza City, we need at least five hospitals. Also, in the northern Gaza Strip, we need three field hospitals, so that the health system can begin to recover and after that, if we restore some hospitals, most of the hospitals in the Gaza Strip were completely destroyed and need to be rebuilt again," he said.
But amid the disappoint of returning to wreckage, it wasn't bad news for everyone.
"This is the first time I am entering Rafah from the main road and this is my house on the main road. My heart was holding on just to see my home again, and thankfully, I found it intact. I pray that God eases the troubles of all people. I am honestly happy, deeply happy," said one returnee.
The toll of the war has been immense and new details on its scope will now begin to emerge.
Over 46,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The 7 October, 2023, Hamas-led attack on southern Israel that sparked the war killed over 1,200 people and hundreds of Israeli soldiers have died.
Some 90% of Gaza’s population has been displaced, many several times. The United Nations says the health system, road network and other vital infrastructure have been badly damaged.
Rebuilding, if the ceasefire reaches its third and final phase, will take several years at least. Major questions about Gaza’s future, political and otherwise, remain unresolved.
In their Interim Damage Assessment report issued in March last year, the European Union, the United Nations and the World Bank put the cost of rebuilding Gaza’s critical infrastructure at €17.9 billion.
And in October last year, the UN Conference on Trade and Development warned that it could take 350 years for Gaza’s economy to return to pre-war levels if the Israeli blockade of the territory remains in force.