Displaced Palestinians return to Gaza City from the southern Gaza Strip on the Al-Rashid Road on Friday. Credit: EBRAHIM HAJJAJ/Reuters

About a day after the declaration of a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, Gazans on Friday began to return to their homes, visit the graves of their loved ones and find shelter from the autumn rain that threatens the tents set up along the seashore.

Arab and Palestinian media outlets reported the opening of the two roads that connect the north of the Gaza Strip to the south: Al-Rashid, which runs along the coastline, and the more inland Salah a-Din Road. With the announcement of the IDF’s withdrawal from the Netzarim corridor about 20 minutes after noon, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians burst into joy and crossed the corridor – which separates Gaza City and northern Gaza from the rest of the Strip. The Palestinian Police Administration in the Gaza Strip announced that it would begin deploying police personnel in all areas from where the IDF had withdrawn.

The IDF’s Arabic-language spokesperson issued a warning to Gaza residents, stating that it is forbidden to approach areas where the army is still stationed, and that passage from the south to the north of the Gaza Strip is only permitted via the two main roads. According to the IDF, Palestinians are prohibited from nearing the Beit Hanoun area, Beit Lahia, Shujaiyeh, the Rafah Crossing, the Philadelphi corridor area and west of Khan Yunis.

The IDF also prohibited approaching the Gaza coast in the coming days.

Displaced Gazans return to their destroyed homes in Gaza City on Friday. Credit: Ebrahim Hajjaj/Reuters

Residents who remained in the areas from which the army withdrew reported extensive destruction, especially in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood, on the Al-Jalaa Road, and in the Gaza University area, where IDF tanks were stationed. Widespread ruin was also reported in the Asr neighborhood, Tel al-Hawa and the Al-Shati refugee camp. Photographs from the area showed convoys of vehicles waving Egyptian flags.

At the same time, thousands of residents remaining in the Gaza City area and the northern Strip began to return to the areas from which the army withdrew earlier on Friday. A spokesperson for the Gaza Municipality said in an interview with Qatari network Al-Araby that the levels of destruction in the city are very high. “The streets are closed due to rubble, and citizens have returned to areas that were inaccessible.”

The spokesperson added that the municipality’s resources are limited and that 85 percent of its vehicles have been destroyed. “We have provided international organizations with a list of essential needs in order to continue providing services such as clearing rubble and maintaining water and sewage lines.”

“This is the first night I have spent without bombs in two years,” Yasmine Saado, 34, told the Palestinian news agency Wafa. “The nightmare is over. My children and I spent a quiet night without fear of death and destruction. A night filled with the confidence we lost during two years of terror.” She described how even her children slept safely, and “they were no longer frightened by the sound of bombs in the middle of the night.” Saado, whose son was killed in an attack on a school in the Shati refugee camp in western Gaza City, said she could now visit his grave without fear.

IDF forces that withdrew from Gaza, on the Israel side of the border, on Thursday. Credit: Ilan Assayag

Ruba Hamid, a 12-year-old girl who lost her family in the attack on their home in southern Gaza City, also told the news agency that for the first time she was able to sleep without suffering from nightmares. A father of six children from Gaza said that his family will be staying in tents for the foreseeable future because the buildings in the city have been destroyed. “The children’s return to educational settings is very important,” he said. “They have to make up for many gaps.”

At the same time, the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry reported that 17 Palestinians were killed and 71 wounded in the last 24 hours, including five who were waiting for humanitarian aid. This brings the number of Palestinian deaths in the Gaza Strip since the war began to 67,211 and the number of wounded to 169,961.

Medical sources in the Gaza Strip reported that since Friday morning, 81 bodies have been recovered from rubble in several areas of the Gaza Strip, and a spokesman for the Civil Defense Forces told the Qatari Al-Arabi channel that displaced people are being asked not to return to areas from which the IDF has withdrawn, for fear of weapons remaining in the area. The spokesman estimated that there are more than 350 bodies trapped in the rubble of Gaza City and on the roads.

Crowds return to Gaza City from the southern Strip on the Al-Rashid Road on Friday. Credit: Mahmoud Issa/Reuters

The Hamas-controlled Interior Ministry in the Gaza Strip announced that it had begun to regain control of the territory, whether to regulate civilian life or restore security order. “The ministry’s agencies will begin deploying forces in areas from which the Israeli army withdrew in all districts of the Gaza Strip, and will work vigorously to restore order and reduce the chaos that the army has tried to spread over the past two years,” the ministry said. Hamas’ government media office also issued a statement to the public calling for cooperation with government bodies to restore normalcy once the fighting subsides.

The director of the government communications office in Gaza added that initial losses in vital sectors in the Strip amount to more than $70 billion. “We will not hesitate to fulfill our duty to protect the rights of the people and rebuild what the Israeli army destroyed. We demand an urgent plan for the comprehensive reconstruction of the Gaza Strip according to a transparent mechanism,” he said.

Rawan Suleiman