Floor mattresses, make-shift water containers, and remaining contents of tents were quickly packed, piled and hurled on top of cars, trucks and donkey pulled carts in Gaza as thousands of Palestinians made their way back to their homes after 15 months of displacement.
For some that meant coming back home to find door frames and walls still standing without roofs, while others only came back to piles of rubble where their homes once stood.
Even before the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas was fully in place on Sunday, Palestinians began the journey to return to their homes.
Shadi Jomaa Abu Sheha used the cover of the ceasefire to return to his house in Nuseirat, in central Gaza.
He found it almost completely destroyed.
"The halting of the bloodshed is an indescribable feeling … I thank God that I survived this war safely," he said.
As he walked up the stairs of what remained of his heavily destroyed home, he recited a prayer, asking God to keep him patient in the face of adversity.
"When we returned to our homes we found nothing but ruin and destruction. I cannot describe the scene in words," he said.
"I built this house piece by piece, and when I returned to it, I didn't find it as I knew it … I don't see my home. I only see destruction."
Displaced Palestinians walking back to their homes, hoping to find them still standing. (AP)
Majida Abu Jarad and her family also returned to find their home in ruin.
At the start of the Israel-Gaza war, they were forced to flee their house in Gaza's northern town of Beit Hanoun, where Ms Jarad remembers the scent of roses and jasmine, gathering around the kitchen table or on the roof on summer evenings.
"As soon as they said that the truce would start on Sunday, we started packing our bags and deciding what we would take, not caring that we would still be living in tents," Ms Abu Jarad said.
Over the past 15 months, the family had crowded with strangers to sleep in a school classroom and searched for water in a vast tent camp, while other times they had to sleep on the street.
The home where their members were forged is now gone.
'It's an indescribable scene'
Mohamed Mahdi, a displaced Palestinian and father of two said people were eager to return to their homes despite what might await.
"They're returning to retrieve their loved ones under the rubble," Mr Mahdi said.
He was forced to leave his three-storey home in Gaza City's south-eastern Zaytoun neighbourhood a few months ago.
Palestinians pray in front of the rubble after returning to their devastated neighborhood. (Reuters: Dawoud Abu Alkas)
Mr Mahdi managed to reach his home on Sunday morning, walking amid the rubble from western Gaza.
Despite the vast scale of the destruction and uncertain prospects for rebuilding, "people were celebrating," he said.
"They started clearing the streets and removing the rubble of their homes. It's a moment they've waited for for 15 months," he said.
Um Saber, a 48-year-old widow and mother of six, returned to her hometown of Beit Lahiya.
She said her family had found bodies in the street as they trekked home, some of which appeared to have been lying in the open for weeks.
When they reached Beit Lahiya, she said they found their home and much of the surrounding area reduced to rubble.
Streets are laced with piles pf rubbish and debris, making these unrecognisable. (Reuters: Dawoud Abu Alkas)
Some families immediately began digging through the debris in search of missing loved ones. Others began trying to clear areas where they could set up tents.
In Gaza's southern city of Rafah, residents returned to find destruction across the city that was once a hub for displaced families fleeing Israel's bombardment elsewhere.
"It's an indescribable scene. It's like you see in a Hollywood horror movie," Mohamed Abu Taha, a Rafah resident said.
"Flattened houses, human remains, skulls and other body parts, in the street and in the rubble."
A displaced woman named Aya said she hadn't seen her home in a year.
"I feel like at last I found some water to drink after being lost in the desert for 15 months," Aya said.
Aerial footage on Sunday (local time) showed the devastation caused to the city of Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip following 15 months of fighting between Israel and Hamas.
Israeli bombardment and ground operations have transformed entire neighbourhoods in several cities in the enclave into rubble-strewn wastelands, with blackened shells of buildings and mounds of debris stretching away in all directions.
The Israel-Gaza war erupted on October 7, 2023 after Hamas launched a surprise attack in Israel where Israeli authorities said 1,200 people were killed an 250 take hostage.
Israel's subsequent offensive on Gaza has killed more than 46,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza health ministry.
Using satellite data, the United Nations estimated last month that 69 per cent of the structures in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, including more than 245,000 homes.
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development estimated it could 350 years for Gaza to rebuild if it remained under an Israeli blockade.
First aid trucks arrive
United Nations humanitarian officials said more than 630 trucks of humanitarian aid have entered the Gaza Strip, following the ceasefire deal.
In a post on social media platform X, Tom Fletcher, the United Nations under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, said that at least 300 of the trucks were bringing humanitarian assistance into the north.
“There is no time to lose,” Mr Fletcher wrote.
“After 15 months of relentless war, the humanitarian needs are staggering.”
World Food Programme (WFP) said their trucks have also started crossing into Gaza from Egypt and via Ashdod, Israel.
WFP said it planed to use every available border crossing point to get supplies into Gaza.
Trucks from Jordan and Israel, will aim to reach people in the north, and from Egypt, people in southern Gaza.
Getting food, water, and medical supplies to children in Gaza would be the first priority for aid organisation, Save the Children (STC).
Nearly all 1.1 million children in Gaza – about half of the population – are in urgent need of food, with many surviving on just one meal a day after 15 months of war.
Inger Ashing, chief executive officer for Save the Children International, said a pause in fighting was not enough to combat hunger and disease "as the shadow of famine looms."
"The pause must be permanent, and efforts urgently ramped up to end the siege and vastly increase the entry of aid," Ms Ashing said.
AP/Reuters
