Home in the Ruins: Gaza's Families Return to a Life Among the Wreckage

Two years after the war began, and despite a ceasefire agreement reached in `stat` October, many of `keyword` Gaza's displaced families are making a perilous journey home—not to intact houses, but to the skeletal remains of their former lives. With winter rains flooding makeshift tent shelters, they are choosing the risk of structural collapse over exposure. It's a stark choice in a territory where the war destroyed or damaged over `stat` 70% of buildings and, according to `keyword` Palestinian health officials, killed more than `stat` 70,000 people.

The Perils of a Fragile Peace

In Gaza City’s Jabalia neighborhood, the Halawa family’s building stands two stories high, a ghost surrounded by rubble. They fled three months after the war began on `stat` October 7, 2023, and returned during the fragile calm established by the truce. A precarious, makeshift wooden staircase is their only way into the half-collapsed structure, where bent rebar juts out from a missing roof.

For this family of seven, and many others, it's a calculated risk. Life in a damaged home is preferable to life in a flooded tent. Inside, Amani Halawa brews coffee over an open fire, thin rays of light filtering through gaps in the broken concrete. They've made minor repairs with scraps, hang backpacks from exposed metal rods, and attempt to carry on with daily routines, creating a semblance of order amidst the chaos.

Reconstruction Stalled, Life in Limbo

The truce remains tenuous. According to news agency reports, `keyword` Israeli attacks have continued, killing more than `stat` 400 `keyword` Palestinians since the agreement. Meanwhile, reconstruction has not begun. `keyword` Israel maintains tight control over all goods entering and exiting the enclave, and the full entry of aid has not been permitted. This has left families like the Halawas to fend for themselves.

Yet, life persists. In one apartment, Sahar Taroush sweeps dust from carpets laid over rubble while her daughter, Bisan, watches a movie on a laptop, its light illuminating gaping holes in the wall. In another home, a family has carefully hung a torn photo of their grandfather from his service in the `keyword` Palestinian Authority’s security forces in the `stat` 1990s. These small acts of normalcy are acts of defiance, an effort to reclaim dignity in the face of devastation.