LONDON: After the Gaza ceasefire came into effect on Oct. 10, thousands of Palestinians returned to their rubble-strewn neighborhoods, passing roads that reeked of death, expecting to find little more than debris where their homes once stood.
Those who found any walls still standing shared videos of themselves on social media attempting to clear the rubble and clean what remained, using whatever tools they could find.
Among them was content creator Hadeel Ahmed, who posted a video of her family surveying the ruins of their home.
A Palestinian man and children stand at a heavily damaged building surrounded by rebar and rubble, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Gaza City, on November 2, 2025. (REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa)
The video showed a floor strewn with rubble and broken furniture, the walls blackened by smoke and stripped to their frames. Almost everything was either charred or buried under a thick layer of ash.
