The article portrays the grim reality faced by residents of Rafah, Gaza, after a ceasefire allowed Mohamed al-Najjar to return home. Eight months away revealed a landscape of complete devastation. With two-thirds of Gaza's structures destroyed, many, including al-Najjar, find their homes in ruins and uninhabitable. His emotional response highlights the futility of returning to a place stripped of its former life, leading him to decide on relocating to a nearby town where he hopes to find some semblance of stability after the conflict that began on October 7, 2023.
This was my home, a six-story building. Why should we return to Rafah? To cry? We can't go back to the house that took us 30 years to build.
The level of destruction in Gaza is so great that returning to their places of origin... is not the same as being able to live there again.
According to satellite image analysis by the U.N., more than 163,000 buildings—around two-thirds of all structures in Gaza—have been destroyed.
After visiting his demolished home in Rafah, Al Najjar almost immediately decided to return to Deir al-Balah... where he has been living with his family since May.
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