By South China Morning Post | Created at 2025-01-17 05:51:26 | Updated at 2025-01-17 13:59:35
8 hours ago
Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are eager to leave miserable tent camps and return to their homes if a long-awaited ceasefire agreement halts the war between Israel and Hamas, but many will find there is nothing left and no way to rebuild.
Israeli bombardment and ground operations have transformed entire neighbourhoods in several cities into rubble-strewn wastelands, with blackened shells of buildings and mounds of debris stretching away in all directions. Major roads have been ploughed up. Critical water and electricity infrastructure is in ruins. Most hospitals no longer function.
And it’s unclear when – or even if – much will be rebuilt.
The agreement for a phased ceasefire and the release of hostages held by Hamas-led militants does not say who will govern Gaza after the war, or whether Israel and Egypt will lift a blockade limiting the movement of people and goods that they imposed when Hamas seized power in 2007.
The United Nations says that it could take more than 350 years to rebuild if the blockade remains.
