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'Haunting' Footage as Gazans Return to Homes in Ruin
"This wasn't an accident. The far-right members of the Israeli government wanted to render Gaza unlivable with the aim of forcing 2 million Palestinians to flee (forever)," said one human rights leader.
Jan 22, 2025
Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip are returning home after a cease-fire deal between Hamas and Israel went into effect Sunday, halting 15 months of war that local health officials say killed over 46,000 people. But for many, there are no homes to return to.
Footage of Gaza shows what once were houses, shops, and other buildings severely damaged or completely reduced to gray rubble.
One Gaza resident, Islam Dahliz, toldThe New York Times that he and his brother and father set out to find their family home—a once spacious two-story dwelling in Rafah—almost as soon as the cease-fire went into effect. What they found instead was unrecognizable.
"It took us a few minutes to accept that this pile of rubble was our home," said Dahliz. The house had been built by Dahliz's father, Abed Dahliz, in the 1970s.
"I was shocked when I saw my entire life—everything I worked for—flattened to the ground," said Abed Dahliz, according to the Times. "The home I spent so many years building, pouring my savings into, is gone."
Versions of this story are playing out all around Gaza. All told, roughly 90% of the population across Gaza was displaced from their homes, many multiple times, according to the United Nations.
"The images emerging from Gaza are haunting. This is a site where Palestinian captives were forced to strip, their clothes left behind among the ruins as a reminder of what Israeli soldiers did," wrote Assal Rad, a scholar of modern Iran, on X. Rad's post is accompanied by a video of a man showing a strip of land covered in clothes. In the video, the man says that the clothes are from Palestinians who were arrested by Israeli forces after they stormed areas in northern Gaza, like the Kamal Adwan Hospital.
In response to reporting of Gazans returning home to destruction, Kenneth Roth, the former executive director of Human Rights Watch, wrote: "This wasn't an accident. The far-right members of the Israeli government wanted to render Gaza unlivable with the aim of forcing two million Palestinians to flee (forever), "
Human Rights Watch, which late last year issued a report accusing Israel of committing "acts of genocide" by depriving Palestinians of water access in Gaza, wrote in November 2024 that "the destruction [in Gaza] is so substantial that it indicates the intention to permanently displace many people."
A preliminary U.N. satellite imagery analysis found that as of December 1, 2024, 60,000 structures in Gaza have been destroyed. The total number of damaged or destroyed structures constitutes roughly 69% of the total structures in the enclave, according to the analysis. A separate U.N. estimate published in January found that 92% of homes have been destroyed or damaged.
The footage coming out of Gaza underscores how long it will take for Palestinians to reconstruct their communities. The cease-fire deal that went into effect Sunday includes three phrases, the third of which is supposed to entail reconstruction of Gaza. Dima Toukan, a nonresident scholar at the Middle East Institute, toldNPR that it's important to note the last phase could be a long way off, and could possibly never happen at all.
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Ending the Brutal Cycle of Resistance and Cease-Fires in Gaza
Time and again, cease-fire agreements have been undermined by Israel’s actions, with violations that reignite violence and perpetuate the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza.
Jan 22, 2025
As Palestinians in Gaza celebrate the announcement of the cease-fire, the relief is palpable but mixed with grief over the atrocities that continue to unfold. For many, the cease-fire serves as a moment of hope, yet the U.S.-Israeli war continues to take lives. This was heartbreakingly illustrated in a
scene shared on X, where a man, overwhelmed by grief, calls out to his deceased sister, "Hala, get up, the war is over. Get up, Hala, we will leave Gaza and travel abroad. Get up!"
Such grief underscores a painful reality: Even in the moments leading up to a cease-fire, Israel has often escalated its assaults, leaving devastation in its wake. History shows that Israel is not to be trusted to uphold cease-fire agreements, as it is frequently the first to break them.
While the conflict's history predates August 2005, this analysis begins there to focus on the fighting and subsequent cease-fire agreements.This list is far from exhaustive and does not cover all the assaults and skirmishes between Israel, Hamas, and other militant factions in the Gaza Strip.
2005-2008
Despite Israel's August 2005 withdrawal from Gaza and the agreements made under the "Agreement on Movement and Access," Israel maintained its illegal and brutal siege on Gaza, occupying its airspace and territorial waters, and severely restricting the flow of goods and people. The destruction of Gaza's airport and seaport in 2001 by Israel, combined with frequent border closures, left residents with no reliable way to obtain essential supplies.
In response, Palestinians relied on underground tunnels to smuggle essential supplies like food, medicine, and construction materials blocked by Israel. These tunnels became an economic lifeline, sustaining Gaza's residents amid the harsh restrictions of the blockade, which had been suffocating them since the signing of the Oslo Accords. A tunnel trader in Gaza described the tunnels as "the lungs through which Gaza breathes" to journalist Nicolas Pelham, for the Institute for Palestine Studies. It is true that weapons, and materials for homemade weapons, also come through these tunnels; however, Palestinians, like all people, have the right to self-defense.
The devastation of Operation Cast Lead, compounded by Israel's failure to adhere to the easing of the blockade as outlined in the cease-fire agreement, set the stage for further hostilities and repeated cycles of violence and cease-fires in the years that followed.
On June 10, 2006, journalist Steven Erlanger, writing for The New York Times, published an article titled "Hamas Fires Rockets at Israel After Calling Off Truce." However, a closer reading of the article reveals that it was Israel that broke the cease-fire by killing a civilian family who were enjoying a picnic on the beach. In retaliation, Hamas launched rocket attacks, much of which, according to the Israeli military, fell within Gaza itself.
On June 25, 2006, Hamas captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. In response, Israel continued its military assaults on Gaza, while Hamas retaliated with rocket attacks. Finally, in June 2008, Egypt brokered a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. Under the terms of the agreement, Hamas would halt its rocket attacks, while Israel would lift its economic siege on Gaza and cease its military assaults and assassinations. Although Hamas adhered to its commitments, Israel maintained its military blockade, thus breaking the terms of the cease-fire.
An analysis by the Carter Center concluded that the 2008 cease-fire temporarily reduced violence, but Israel failed to address Gaza's humanitarian crisis due to its siege. Before this cease-fire, Israeli assaults caused an average of 49 Palestinian deaths per month in Gaza, compared to one Israeli fatality during the same period caused by a rocket attack by Hamas. Although violence decreased during the truce, restrictions on the movement of goods and people persisted, with imports at just 27% of pre-blockade levels and crossings at Rafah (with Egypt) and Erez (with Israel) severely limited. The ongoing restrictions undermined the cease-fire, fueling frustrations in Gaza.
Hostilities resumed in November 2008 after an Israeli attack killed six Hamas militants. This escalation eventually led to Israel launching a devastating assault on the Gaza Strip on December 27, 2008, dubbed "Operation Cast Lead." For 22 days, Israel relentlessly bombarded Gaza while barring international media and aid agencies from entering the strip. The assault resulted in the deaths of over 1,400 Palestinians and left countless others injured. In contrast, Israelis sustained 13 deaths, three of whom were civilians.
Israel's conduct was so egregious that the United Nations Human Rights Council's (UNHRC) independent fact-finding mission, led by Richard Goldstone—"a Jew and Zionist," as described by British-Israeli historian Avi Shlaim in The Guardian—concluded in its report, The Goldstone Report, that Israel's assault on Gaza was, in part, directed at the civilians of Gaza. It was not just Hamas that was in Israel's line of fire.
Egypt once again brokered a cease-fire deal, with Hamas stipulating the easing of the blockade. However, Israel failed to follow through on its commitments, maintaining its siege on Gaza.
2012–2019
The devastation of Operation Cast Lead, compounded by Israel's failure to adhere to the easing of the blockade as outlined in the cease-fire agreement, set the stage for further hostilities and repeated cycles of violence and cease-fires in the years that followed.
Frustrations reached a boiling point when, on November 14, 2012, Israel launched yet another major assault on Gaza, lasting eight days, dubbed "Operation Pillar of Defense." During this war, Israel killed 167 Palestinians, including 33 children. Hamas' rocket attacks killed four Israeli civilians and two soldiers.
Predictably, another cease-fire agreement was reached after Israel carried out its latest instance of "mowing the lawn." Like previous cease-fires, this agreement called for easing restrictions on Gaza. However, Israel failed to honor its commitments, keeping the siege intact and severely limiting the movement of goods and people.
In April 2014, Hamas and the Palestinian Authority set aside their differences and formed a unity government. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government were stunned, leading them to halt peace talks with the PA. This was despite the fact that the reconciliation government recognized Israel as a state, essentially accepting the two-state solution and adherence to seeking a political solution rather than through armed resistance. Despite this, Israel sought a pretext to launch another war on Gaza, aiming to undermine the reconciliation within the Palestinian political factions. The abduction of three Israeli settler teenagers in the West Bank provided that pretext. Israel accused Hamas of their murders without providing any proof, while Hamas denied the allegations. In response, Israel imposed collective punishment on Palestinians in the Occupied West Bank, killing nine civilians, including a 15-year-old.
As was becoming routine, Israel launched a full-scale military assault dubbed "Operation Protective Edge." The United Nations estimated over 2,100 Palestinians were killed, including 495 children and 253 women, highlighting the devastating human toll. Meanwhile, 66 Israeli soldiers and seven civilians were reportedly killed by Hamas rocket fire during this operation. UNRAW described the war as "catastrophic, unprecedented, and unparalleled in Gaza, since at least the start of the Israeli occupation in 1967 and further eroded whatever resilience the people in Gaza still have left."
After 50 days of assault on Gaza, Israel and Hamas once again agreed to a cease-fire brokered by Egypt. The terms of the agreement included the cessation of hostilities and the lifting of the siege. Despite the cease-fire agreement, Israel continued to enforce its siege, undermining the deal.
The Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem documented the aftermath, reporting: "To add insult to injury, some voices in Israel have glorified the damage and even demanded a harsher approach. Meanwhile, thousands of Gazans continue to pay the price." Similarly, Defense for Children International (DCI), a children's rights group, referred to the conflict as "a war waged on Gaza's children." The report detailed, "Children were killed in their homes by Israeli missiles, while sheltering in schools by high-explosive Israeli artillery shells, and in the streets by Israeli drone-fired missiles and artillery shells as they attempted to escape the onslaught with their families."
As a result, the situation returned to the status quo that favored Israel. The West Bank and Gaza remained not only physically but also politically severed.
The next significant event occurred on March 30, 2018, when Palestinians began"The Great March of Return"—nonviolent protests along the fence separating Gaza from Israel. Every Friday, Palestinians marched and protested, demanding an end to the siege and the right to return to their ancestral homes, which were illegally seized by Israel in 1948 and 1967.
Israel responded to these nonviolent protests with lethal force, killing 266 people and injuring 30,000 civilians. The demonstrations lasted nearly two years. By the end, thousands of Palestinians suffered permanent and debilitating injuries.
Meanwhile, Israel continued its siege on Gaza with the assistance of Egypt, which kept the Rafah border crossing closed to Palestinians.
2021
In May 2021, the Jerusalem District Court ordered dozens of Palestinians, who had lived for generations in their family homes in Sheikh Jarrah in Occupied East Jerusalem, to vacate their residences to make way for Jewish settlers. This action has been described by many as ethnic cleansing, carried out through judicial rulings, the use of lethal force, and acts of settler violence.
Protests erupted in solidarity with the families of Sheikh Jarrah across the Occupied West Bank and among Palestinians inside Israel, including those holding Israeli citizenship.
On May 9, Israeli police stormed the occupied Masjid Al-Aqsa, Islam's third holiest site, during Laylat al-Qadr, the holiest night of Ramadan, injuring 250 Palestinians. Simultaneously, Israeli mobs rampaged through Jerusalem, committing acts of terror. In response, Hamas warned Israel to cease its actions in Sheikh Jarrah and at Al-Aqsa, eventually firing rockets into Israeli territory, when Israel ignored their warnings.
From May 10 to May 21, 2021, Israel launched an intense bombing campaign on Gaza. During this campaign, the al-Jalaa building, which housed major news agencies, was bombed under the pretext of alleged terrorist activity. However, after an investigation, Human Rights Watch (HRW) dismissed these claims and declared the bombing of al-Jalaa and other buildings as war crimes. Following these events, Egypt brokered a cease-fire deal, ending the escalation.
DCI declared 2021 the deadliest year for Palestinian children since Operation Cast Lead, reporting casualties in both Occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Current Cease-Fire
On October 7, 2023, Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel, killing hundreds and capturing 250 Israeli hostages. In response, Israel initiated a relentless carpet bombing campaign on Gaza that has continued for 15 months, causing widespread destruction and leveling large swaths of the Gaza Strip, rendering them uninhabitable.
According to The Lancet, the world's leading respected medical journal, a study published on January 9, 2025, estimates that the death toll in Gaza is underreported by 41%. On December 30, 2024, Ghassan Abu-Sittah, a British Palestinian surgeon, stated on Democracy Now that the actual death toll might be closer to 300,000 people, highlighting the immense scale of human suffering and the challenges in accurately quantifying the casualties.
The U.S.-Israel war on Gaza also became a central issue in the 2024 Presidential elections, influencing the transition from the Biden-Harris administration to President Donald Trump. As the Biden-Harris administration ended amid a significant political defeat for former Vice President Kamala Harris and the Democrats, Trump seized the opportunity to outshine and further humiliate former President Joe Biden and the Democrats. Staying true to his pledge to the Muslim and Arab community, Trump acted decisively to negotiate a cease-fire.
For true peace to take root, these cease-fire agreements must go beyond temporary pauses in violence.
Whether Trump will continue on this path of peace as president remains to be seen. During his previous tenure, Trump oversaw the creation of the Abraham Accords, brokered by his son-in-law Jared Kushner. The accords facilitated normalization between Israel and several Arab and Muslim states, but many view them as an attempt to undermine the Palestinian cause by sidestepping a political solution to their struggle.
Additionally, Trump's presidency left a controversial legacy on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, marked by pro-Israel policies that deepened Palestinian hardships. Recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital, endorsing sovereignty over the Golan Heights, closing the Palestinian Liberation Organization's Washington office, and cutting $200 million in aid to the Palestinian Authority destabilized Palestinian governance and undermined their pursuit of justice and self-determination.
Conclusion
Cease-fires are frequently established following Israeli military operations and wars, but repeated violations by Israel often lead to their collapse. The ongoing siege and blockades imposed after these agreements prevent Gaza's recovery and exacerbate already dire humanitarian conditions.
Israel's long-standing pattern of violating cease-fires is well-documented, yet the United States and the international community often look the other way. For example, the most recent cease-fire agreement between Hezbollah in Lebanon and Israel serves as a stark reminder of Israel's record of non-compliance.
Imad K. Harb, director of Research and Analysis for the Arab Center of Washington, D.C., noted: "The Israeli Army violated the cease-fire from the beginning and continues to do so more than a week after it went into effect, with some 129 violations by December 4. Israel also violated the cease-fire on December 6 and 7, killing at least seven civilians. This means that all bets are off that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government could be trusted to see peace through in southern Lebanon."
This record of violations raises serious doubts about Israel's willingness to uphold peace agreements elsewhere, including Gaza.
For true peace to take root, these cease-fire agreements must go beyond temporary pauses in violence. They must address the root causes of the conflict: Israel's illegal siege of Gaza, the blockades, the systemic oppression of Palestinians, and the ongoing Occupation of Palestine since 1948. Without meaningful action to uphold commitments and ensure accountability, Gaza's suffering will persist, and the fragile hope offered by cease-fires will remain an illusion.
Beyond cease-fire violations, Israel's siege has profound implications for the fundamental rights of Palestinians. Freedom of movement is essential for the realization of other basic rights, including the right to life, access to medical care, education, livelihood, and family unity. Yet Israel's ongoing blockade prevents Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories from exercising these rights. The isolation of Gaza, the world's largest open-air prison, leaves its people cut off from the rest of the world and trapped in worsening humanitarian conditions, unable to rebuild their lives or secure their future.
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Gaza Cease-Fire Takes Effect After Deadly Three-Hour Delay
Israeli forces killed at least 19 Palestinians during the delay, on top of nearly 47,000 others slaughtered since October 2023.
Jan 19, 2025
Israeli forces killed at least 19 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Sunday morning during a three-hour delay in implementing a cease-fire and hostage-release deal that Israel's Cabinet finally approved the previous day.
After over 15 months of a U.S.-backed military assault for which Israel faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) strikes on Gaza were set to stop at 8:30 am local time, due to a three-phase agreement negotiated by Egypt, Qatar, and the outgoing Biden and incoming Trump administrations.
They did not, with deadly results. Mahmoud Basal, a spokesperson for Gaza's Civil Defense, said Sunday that at least 19 people were killed and over 36 were injured from 8:30 am to 11:30 am. That's on top of the tens of thousands of people the Israeli assault and restrictions on humanitarian aid have killed since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
As of midnight Saturday, the Gaza Ministry of Health put the official death toll in the besieged Palestinian enclave at 46,913, with another 110,750 people injured and over 10,000 others missing in the rubble of former homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques, though experts warn the number of deaths is likely far higher.
At 9:17 am on Sunday, the IDF said that it was "continuing to operate and strike terrorist targets in Gaza," adding: "A short while ago, IDF artillery and aircraft struck a number of terrorist targets in northern and central Gaza. The IDF remains ready in offense and defense and will not allow any harm to the citizens of Israel."
Muhammad Shehada, a Gazan writer, called the delay a "last-minute trick" by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and explained on social media that it was "under the pretext that Hamas hasn't submitted the list of three captives it'll release today."
As Shehada detailed:
Israel also reneged on the arrangement needed for Hamas to be able to submit such list; suspending surveillance drones and bombardment in the hours preceding the cease-fire so that it becomes logistically possible for Hamas' members on the ground and abroad to contact each other and figure out which hostages are alive and where without compromising their whereabouts and risking being bombed or raided by the IDF.
Hamas was forced to submit the list under fire and spy drones, which meant Israel exploited this to try to locate and snatch some captives last minute. Israel now succeeded in reaching the body of the soldier Oron Shaul, whom Hamas had been holding captive since 2014.
Ultimately, Hamas submitted the list and the pause in fighting took effect—at least for now—enabling displaced Palestinians to start returning to what is left of their communities and the process of releasing captives to begin with three Israelis and 90 Palestinians. During the deal's first 42-day phase, there are plans to free 33 Israelis taken hostage by Palestinian militants, 737 Palestinians imprisoned in Israel, and 1,167 Palestinians detained by Israeli forces in Gaza.
The three Israeli hostages—Emily Damari, Romi Gonen, and Doron Steinbrecher—were transfered to the International Committee of the Red Cross at a square in central Gaza City. The IDF confirmed that the Red Cross was bringing the women to Israeli troops.
The Associated Press on Sunday obtained from Hamas a list of the first 90 Palestinian prisoners set to be freed. They included 15-year-old Mahmoud Aliowat; 53-year-old Dalal Khaseeb, the sister of former Hamas second-in-command Saleh Arouri; 62-year-old Khalida Jarrar, a Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine leader; and 68-year-old Abla Abdelrasoul, the wife of detained PFLP leader Ahmad Saadat.
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