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Palestinians returning to parts of the enclave have been picking their way through vast piles of rubble and trying to salvage what they can.
Jan. 20, 2025, 5:00 p.m. ET
Gazans took in the scale of devastation to their old neighborhoods and Israelis awaited news about three newly released hostages as a day-old cease-fire between Hamas and Israel continued to hold on Monday.
With the 15-month war paused, Palestinians have been returning to parts of the Gaza Strip they had fled, picking their way through vast swaths of rubble and trying to salvage what they could — a sofa, a mattress, a chair or a crate — from the wreckage of their former homes.
“People can barely recognize the crushed places where they used to live,” said Montaser Bahja, an English teacher, a day after visiting his old neighborhood in the northern city of Jabaliya.
In a video shared with The New York Times, Mr. Bahja, 50, can be seen hurrying through the streets with his son Alhassan, 21, and trying to reconcile the piles of rubble that loom on either side with their memories.
“This is Fahmy Abu Warda’s home; this is Abu Shaaban’s home,” Alhassan is heard saying.
In Israel, which celebrated the return of the first group of hostages released by Hamas as part of the truce, the authorities offered only the broadest of descriptions of their conditions. The Israeli health ministry and Sheba Medical Center, where the three women are staying in a closed wing with family members, said their primary commitment was to safeguard the former captives’ privacy as they received medical and psychological care.
“I’m happy to report that they are in stable condition,” said one of their doctors, Prof. Itai Pessach. “That allows us, and them, to focus on what is the most important thing for now: uniting with their families.”
