A person sits within the rubble of his destroyed dwelling in Rafah as Palestinians return to the southern Gaza Strip metropolis for the primary time in months, after Israeli troops withdrew to the border, Jan. 20.
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RAFAH, Gaza Strip — For practically 16 months, Israeli airstrikes pounded the Gaza Strip, flattening complete neighborhoods and leveling tens of hundreds of buildings.
A ceasefire settlement that started final Sunday has paused the conflict between Israel and Hamas, however this small territory — dwelling to some 2 million Palestinians — now lies in ruins.
Israeli troops have withdrawn from metropolis facilities in Gaza as a part of the deal.
For the primary time in eight months, NPR obtained a glimpse of a type of cities this week. Rafah is the place greater than one million displaced Palestinians and most worldwide assist staff sheltered in the course of the first half of the conflict. The Rafah crossing with Egypt served as Gaza’s lifeline for meals, medical provides and gasoline throughout these months.
However this metropolis, like all of Gaza, was by no means secure. Total households had been killed whereas sheltering in Rafah.
A person assesses injury to his dwelling in Rafah, Jan. 20. Palestinians returning in the course of the ceasefire are discovering little greater than rubble and particles from Israeli airstrikes after greater than 15 months of conflict.
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A view of the destruction throughout the southern Gaza metropolis of Rafah on Jan. 20, following greater than a 12 months of Israeli airstrikes and bombardment of the Palestinian enclave.
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Houses have been changed into piles of rubble in Rafah, which sheltered most individuals in the course of the first half of the conflict, and in cities throughout Gaza.
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A view of the destroyed Abu Youssef al-Najjar hospital in Rafah, following the withdrawal of Israeli troops from town heart in the course of the ceasefire.
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When Israeli floor troops invaded town in Could of their pursuit of Hamas, folks had been pressured to flee once more. Israel’s army says it discovered Hamas tunnels and weapons in Rafah, and three months in the past, it was the place they killed Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led assault on Israel.
Managed demolitions, bulldozers and heavy airstrikes by Israel in the course of the army’s eight month-long incursion there demolished town: Some 16,000 buildings are utterly destroyed, 80% of Rafah’s agricultural land has been destroyed, and all of its electrical energy networks, landlines, water wells and sewage pumping stations are destroyed or severely broken, based on the most recent municipality figures.
Here’s a choice of photographs exhibiting town earlier than Israeli floor forces entered in Could 2024 — the final time NPR was there — and what it seems like of their wake.
Rafah’s skyline and buildings will be seen on this picture from Feb. 14, 2024. Israeli troops invaded town in pursuit of Hamas three months later, leaving town in ruins and most buildings destroyed.
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The morgue inside Rafah’s predominant Abu Youssef al-Najjar hospital, seen right here on April 21, 2024, acquired a gentle stream of useless in the course of the first months of the conflict, earlier than Israeli floor troops invaded, closing off entry to the hospital.
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A girl carries a toddler killed in an Israeli airstrike in Rafah on the predominant Abu Youssef al-Najjar hospital’s morgue on Could 6, 2024. The hospital was later destroyed, following Israel’s floor invasion of town in pursuit of Hamas.
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A view of crowds in Rafah on Feb. 6, 2024, when town was sheltering greater than one million displaced Palestinians in the course of the first half of the conflict, and earlier than residents needed to flee once more and arrange makeshift tents for shelter elsewhere in Gaza.
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A photograph of the morgue contained in the Abu Youssef al-Najjar hospital in Gaza on Feb. 18, 2024, earlier than it was destroyed within the conflict.
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