As Palestinians Return to Gaza City, Elation and Despair Mix

For the first time in over a year, tens of thousands of Palestinians have reached their homes in the northern Gaza Strip, giving way to a mixture of elation and despair.

On Tuesday, emotional reunions with family members who remained in northern Gaza during the war continued throughout Gaza City. But the return home was also shocking and depressing: Israel’s bombing campaign flattened entire neighborhoods, making them barely recognizable piles of rubble.

“We’re overcome with joy — we’re finally in our neighborhood near friends and family after a year living on the sidewalk and the sand,” said Rajab al-Sindawi, a 49-year-old secondhand clothing salesman from Gaza City, who had traveled to Rafah, Deir al Balah and Nuseirat after leaving the north. “But our home is gone and it feels like our future is gone, too.”

The mass return to northern Gaza commenced after Israeli troops withdrew from Gaza’s coastal road on Monday under the terms of the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, and allowed displaced people to move north.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from northern Gaza fled south at the start of Israel’s military offensive against Hamas. For nearly 16 months, they have lived in tents, makeshift shelters, schools and friends’ and relatives’ homes.

For now, Mr. al-Sindawi, his wife and seven children are staying at his parents’ home, which survived the war but lacks water and power.

As he walked for five hours on Monday from Nuseirat in central Gaza to Gaza City, Mr. al-Sindawi passed one demolished building after another, he said, which made him wonder how long Gaza would take to rebuild.

“The whole city is wrecked,” he said of Gaza City. “It will be years before we get our house back.”

Northern Gaza was one of the places in the coastal enclave hit hardest during the war: It was where the Israeli military focused its campaign in the initial aftermath of the Hamas-led October 2023 attack on southern Israel that left roughly 1,200 people dead and 250 taken hostage. Israeli forces caused immense damage to apartment blocks, hospitals and schools — places Israel accused Hamas militants of exploiting for military purposes and using to hide among civilians.