Lara El Hajj

After 15 months of endless genocide, a ceasefire was set in Gaza. However, have we ever thought about how the return of Gazan people will look?An estimated 2.3 million Palestinians live in Gaza, and nearly all of them have been forced to flee their homes as a result of the ongoing genocide and bombardment throughout the region, and its widespread orders for the displacement of major civilian neighborhoods. According to Gaza’s health officials, they have tallied the number of deaths, which stands at 46,788, including those reported by relatives and those documented in hospitals. Women, children, and the elderly accounted for 59% of the identified casualties as of October 7, 2024, according to the ministry, a UN investigation in November estimated that the percentage for women and children might reach 70%. The World Health Organization (WHO) revealed in January that 25% of the 110,453 Palestinians injured had life-altering injuries, said the health ministry. Scholars using satellite imagery, Oregon State University’s Jamon Van Den Hoek, and CUNY Graduate Center’s Corey Scher have examined the extent of the destruction in Gaza. According to their most recent research, as of January 11, 59.8% of the buildings in the Gaza Strip had either been destroyed or damaged since the genocide began. Some infrastructure was struck more than once, and the majority of bombardment was centered in metropolitan areas. A larger percentage was determined by the United Nations Satellite Center (UNOSAT), which stated that as of the beginning of December, 69% of infrastructure had been destroyed or damaged. The UN also found that 68% of the strip’s road system was either destroyed or severely degraded. Damage in and around important medical institutions has been documented on many occasions. According to the UN, 50% of hospitals are closed and the remaining ones are only partially operational, which means that many of the ones that are still open are unable to treat complex injuries and chronic illnesses.According to UN estimates, 91% of individuals have expressed severe food insecurity, following recent operations in northern Gaza, the IPC, a body that collaborates with governments, nonprofits, and agencies, has determined that starvation levels have been exceeded. Damage to agricultural land is one of the difficulties, UN agencies reported in September that vehicle track shelling destroyed 67.6% of crops. Aid does not always reach its objective, even when it does reach Gaza. As law and order collapsed, relief workers issued warnings about criminal gangs stealing goods and stopping assistance delivery. Aid delivery to Gaza should be facilitated by the truce, but how to restore the strip will be the next challenge. It could take Gazans more than ten years to rebuild after a horrific fifteen months of genocide.A writer from Gaza wrote for Al Jazeera: “I kept revisiting the agony of what I saw, heard, and experienced during the first four months of the war in Gaza here in Cairo. My heart races in terror when I hear airplanes in the sky because I assume it is a warplane. I freak out when I hear fireworks because I think they're bomb blasts. Exile proved to be an extension of the battle, contrary to my initial expectations that it would offer safety and quiet. Our lives are still dominated by the death and devastation occurring in Gaza. We are still followed by the grief, suffering, and battle for existence that we believed we had left behind. Even if the War ends, nothing will ever be the same again, and nothing will make up for the terrible loss we have experienced. The ceasefire that is in place today is meant to halt the genocide, but it is uncertain if it will end it, and we know that more will perish because the situation will not get better”