In Gaza on Monday , families began returning to the ruins of their homes following the ceasefire that went into effect on Sunday morning.
Medical sources reported on Monday evening that rescue teams and citizens were able to retrieve the bodies of 58 martyrs from the city of Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip.
A Wafa news correspondent explained that with the retrieval of the 58 bodies, the number of killed who have been recovered from the city has risen to 137 since the ceasefire agreement came into effect.
The ceasefire in the Gaza Strip went into effect yesterday, Sunday, at 11:15 am.
The bodies of 50 victims have been brought to the morgue of Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis after being recovered from the rubble of destroyed homes in the areas where the Israeli army recently withdrew from in Rafah, southern Gaza. pic.twitter.com/a8LbVLwv7X
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) January 21, 2025
Gaza starts to rebuild 🍉 pic.twitter.com/eLQrffnZuu
— Huma Zehra (@HumaZhr) January 20, 2025
FIRST SUNSET WITHOUT BOMBING IN GAZA! pic.twitter.com/5U7V50ufiw
— Muhammad Smiry 🇵🇸 (@MuhammadSmiry) January 19, 2025
Emotional moments when the freed Palestinian journalist Rola Hassanein reunited with her daughter, Eliya, and family after being released as part of the exchange deal between the Palestinian resistance and the Israeli occupation:
Gaza Strip. 15 months of war. 470 day pic.twitter.com/DzP3loZZ3c
— World Observer (@SHAHANBAZKHAN4) January 21, 2025
Report from the Wafa news agency:
After procrastination by the Israeli occupation, the “ceasefire agreement” in the Gaza Strip came into effect after more than 15 months of the Israeli war of extermination, which left about 47,000 killed, more than 110,000 wounded, thousands missing, and unprecedented destruction.
The displaced people began preparing to return to their places of residence and the rubble of their homes, as the Israeli occupation raids destroyed more than 80% of the homes and facilities in the Strip.
Journalist Dima Abdel Hadi said: “The losses are great, there is massive destruction in Gaza, Jabalia, Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahia, Khan Younis, Rafah, and the occupied and completely destroyed border areas and towns. Despite this, hope will return to hearts with the return of the people of the country to their destroyed homes, albeit with caution and grief.”
As for the visual artist Ilham Fatiha, she directed an appeal to President Mahmoud Abbas to save the Gaza Strip by having the Palestinian National Authority assume all of its duties in the Strip, in order to alleviate the suffering of the citizens, and for Gaza to return to the rule of the legitimate constitution.
She indicated that she and her family would immediately head to their residential area to inspect their homes and “to heal the wounds and pain that have befallen us.”
For his part, the wounded engineer Hazem Foura expressed his hope that he would be able to travel abroad to receive treatment after he was injured during the war and his leg was amputated, and his wife, the lawyer Ayat, was also injured.
“We have been suffering the same suffering for about a year and a half. There is no food or water, and we hope to return to our homes soon after the ceasefire is announced,” said the teacher, Sherine Ayed.
The Israeli occupation aggression has displaced more than 85% of the Gaza Strip’s citizens, more than 1.93 million citizens out of 2.2 million, from their homes after they were destroyed. About 100,000 citizens have also left the Strip since the beginning of the aggression.
About 1.6 million Gazans currently live in shelters and tents that lack the minimum requirements for human life.
Citizen Amal Abu Ghoula said, “We have experienced bitterness in all its forms and colors. We have lost loved ones, relatives and friends, and we have been deprived of food, drink and clothing. We have stood in lines to fill water and obtain food from the hospice, and we have collected firewood and wood to cook on and heat water for bathing. What difficult days they were. I wish I could remember them and not live them, and I do not wish for any human being to live them, whoever they may be.”
Sufyan Al-Attar from Beit Lahia said: “I wished to experience this joy and I waited for it for months and long days. I missed my farm and the strawberries of Beit Lahia, whose delicious taste people never forget. I lived in a tent and I will return to live in a tent on my land that was destroyed and bulldozed by the occupation’s machines.”
He added: “We will return, rebuild and rebuild again, and we will not surrender to the destruction and devastation that coincided with the torrent of blood that claimed the lives of men, children, women, the elderly and young people.”
Citizen Talal Ayesh said, “I am eager to return to Gaza after fifteen months of displacement and migration. Upon my arrival there, I will ask about the location of my father’s grave, who was killed last October and I was unable to say goodbye to him and embrace his body.”
He added: “The aggression has caused us to lose dozens of relatives, deprived us of meeting them and severed the ties between us. Because of my intense longing to return to Gaza, the idea of moving the tent from the southern Gaza Strip and setting it up at the closest point that is currently permitted to be reached comes to mind, so that I can be the first to set foot in Gaza after being displaced and displaced.”
He continued: “The moments of joy that people are experiencing will not erase the days of sadness, displacement and genocide that was practiced against our people in the Gaza Strip in front of the eyes and ears of the entire world without anyone moving a finger.”
The atmosphere of joy for the displaced Muhammad Shaheen, who studies medicine at the Islamic University, was mixed with tears of sadness over the loss of his other half, his only brother, Yazan, who was a brother and a friend to him.
He expressed his hope to return to their home in northern Gaza so that he could complete his studies and fulfill the dream of his mother, who passed away six years ago.
The situation of the displaced Shaheen is not much different from that of the displaced Radwan Madi from the city of Rafah, who also lost his dear brother Aziz, who is two years younger than him, during the occupation’s bombing of the displaced people’s tents in the Al-Mawasi area as well.
Madi indicated that he was waiting impatiently for the ceasefire to come into effect so that he could return to Rafah, despite knowing that their four-story house had been destroyed. He confirmed that he would set up a tent on the ruins of their house and live in it until it was rebuilt again.