Nesrine Hamad, a mother of three, was anxiously awaiting news of her husband, who had made the arduous journey to the Sheikh Radwan area of Gaza City. She stayed in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, where her family had been displaced.
“My husband went to our house in Sheikh Radwan today [Sunday]”We knew it was bombed, but seeing it with our own eyes made it even more painful,” Hamad told DW by phone. His home was destroyed and much of the neighborhood was left unrecognizable.
Her husband was among thousands of people who returned to the north of Gaza after Israel announced a ceasefire on Friday afternoon. Since then, videos have shown a steady stream of people – many of them on foot – heading north along Gaza’s coastal road.
a fragile armistice agreement
Last week, after fast-paced, indirect talks, Gaza-based terrorist group Hamas and Israel agreed to a 20-point plan proposed by the United States. The purpose of this agreement is to end the two-year-long war between Israel and Hamas.
Many of the more controversial issues in the ambitious US plan still have to be discussed in detail. As part of the first phase, Hamas on Monday released the 20 remaining surviving hostages, while Israel is to release about 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, many of whom are held without charge. The bodies of the remaining 28 dead hostages are also to be handed over.
The war began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas – considered a terrorist organization by the US, EU and others – launched attacks on several Israeli villages, military bases and the Nova music festival near the Gaza Strip. According to Israeli officials, about 1,200 people were killed, while 251 were taken back to Gaza as hostages.
The war ‘killed everything inside us’
Although Hamad said he was relieved that the Israeli bombardment had stopped, losing his home was another painful chapter in two years of displacement and survival. He said his family has been displaced 17 times.
Hamad said, “Thank God, the war is over, but only after it destroyed everything inside us. It killed friends, relatives and neighbors. It destroyed Gaza. It ruined us psychologically. It created diseases inside us – caused by lack of medicine, displacement and polluted environment.” “I hope that war will never return and that we will never have to experience fear again.”
The United Nations estimates that about two-thirds of Gaza’s buildings have been damaged or destroyed since the beginning of the war. The Hamas-run Gaza Health Authority reports that more than 67,000 people – mostly civilians – have been killed during the two-year war. The UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory has referred to the war as genocide – a charge Israel strongly denies.
‘Israel has made enemies for many years to come’
Mahmoud Afif, a father of six, was among those who remained in Gaza City even as Israeli forces stepped up their operations to seize and annex it. He said he had no money for transportation or accommodation in the south.
“I was moving between three different places in western Gaza City and thank God none of my children were killed and I’m still alive,” he said by phone from Gaza City.
However, his house in Shijaiyah has been razed to the ground.
“I lost my home, which I worked tirelessly to build with my brothers all my life, all because of Hamas and Israel,” he said. “What happened in Gaza over the past two years achieved nothing. On the contrary, it set Gaza back years, and Israel has created enemies for years to come.”
According to Israeli officials, the army remains in control of at least 53% of Gaza, despite a partial retreat to an agreed line within the territory as part of the first phase of a ceasefire and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) agreement. An IDF spokesman said that several areas in the north, east and south were off-limits and warned that entering them “may put your life in danger.”
Awaiting news from northern Gaza
Faten Lubbad, a young Palestinian woman from Sheikh Radwan, also heard from relatives that her family home had been destroyed. Despite danger and repeated displacement, the family tried to stay close to their home in northern Gaza City. But by September, intensifying Israeli attacks forced him to flee to Khan Yunis in the south of the Gaza Strip, where he and his family took refuge in a former prison cell.
Lubbad said she no longer sees any future in Gaza.
“It is pointless to return to the North if we have lost our homes – we can live there temporarily until we are issued our passports.” [and then] “Flee the hell of Gaza, first to Egypt or some other country,” Lubbad said. “The war in Gaza may be over, but the hell continues.”
“We don’t know what the future holds for us,” he said.
It is doubtful that the ceasefire will hold
Anxiety remains high in Gaza, as many residents doubt that the ceasefire will hold. In mid-March 2025, Israel broke the previous agreement and resumed its offensive. In recent days, Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has warned that Israel will return to war if Hamas is not disarmed and Gaza is not completely demilitarized.
Although the fighting has stopped, grief and trauma still remain. Emergency services in Gaza say they will use the ceasefire to recover bodies. Thousands of people are believed to be buried under the debris of destroyed houses. Others were hastily buried in makeshift graves on the roadside or in backyards, as the fighting prevented proper funerals.
Parents like Nesreen Hamad are worried about the future. Their children have not received any formal education for two years, and much of Gaza’s health care system has been destroyed. While the US-brokered agreement states that aid must be allowed into Gaza, it is unclear how much humanitarian aid Israel will allow through the crossing.
Who will rule Gaza?
Then the political question is who will rule Gaza.
The proposed plan involves the creation of a new technocratic Palestinian administration, which would be overseen by international figures including US President Donald Trump and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. But many Palestinians say they feel excluded from the decision-making process.
“I don’t want Hamas, nor do I want any Palestinian faction,” Hamad said. “Any international entity that can rule over us and rebuild Gaza will be welcomed.”
This sentiment was echoed by Mahmood Afif.
“I don’t know who will rule Gaza, but I know I don’t want someone from the previous era,” he said, referring to Hamas, which violently seized Gaza in 2007 from the Palestinian Authority, which rules limited parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
He said, “I hope – for the sake of our children – that whoever leads the people will build a better future for them.”
Edited by: Jesse Wingard; rob mudge