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Gaza ceasefire gives Rafah residents chance to return to ruined homes


From the Guardian - When Hanan al-Qaq reached her home at around 11am on Tuesday, she walked through the shrapnel-strewn, dust-caked rooms, over the shattered remains of doors and windows. "At least it is still there," the 42-year-old teacher sighed. "And at least we are, just."

Across Gaza, with the 72-hour ceasefire agreed by Israel and Hamas the night before appearing more solid as the day wore on, tens of thousands of people were saying, in a multitude of different ways, the same thing.

Others, including Qaq's neighbours, were simply trying to salvage any belongings from the smashed ruins of their houses.

Despite the first prolonged period of calm since the conflict began four weeks ago there was little celebration in Gaza. After a series of broken ceasefires, people have learned not to hope too hard. Most are stunned by the scale of the damage done in this most recent war. With more than 1,800 dead, according to the United Nations and the local health ministry, many are also grieving.

More than 9,000 Palestinians have been injured. Two of Qaq's seven children are among them. Her son Mohammed, 20, is in a critical condition after being hit in the chest and stomach by shell fragments when the family first tried to return to their home in the southern city of Rafah on Friday. They had spent more than three weeks of the conflict in the home of a neighbour who lived in a safer area; the promised ceasefire lasted a mere three hours and renewed fighting between the Israeli military and Hamas caught the Qaq family exposed. more

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