While some Palestinians were able to dig up miscellaneous items deep under the rubble, many felt hopeless after dreaming about the possibility of returning to their homes and repairing or rebuilding them.

Hundreds of people continue to return to their homes in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on the second day of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. However, the displaced are returning to a city almost completely devastated by Israeli attacks on the enclave over the past 15 months,

Aerial footage on Monday showed the devastation caused to the southern Gaza city of Rafah as Palestinians began returning to what was left of their homes.

Palestinian farmer Abd al-Sattari owned two houses in Gaza’s Rafah. For the nine months since Israeli forces invaded the southern city, he has been forced into displacement. The 53-year-old had lived with the hope that if one house got hit in one of the Israeli attacks,

After a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas was announced, buildings reduced to rubble were all that was left for thousands of displaced Palestinians in Gaza.