A person sits within the rubble of his destroyed house 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 1000’s of buildings.
A ceasefire settlement that started final Sunday has paused the warfare between Israel and Hamas, however this small territory — house 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Israeli troops have withdrawn from metropolis facilities in Gaza as a part of the deal.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 acquired a glimpse of a kind of cities this week. Rafah is the place greater than 1,000,000 displaced Palestinians and most worldwide help staff sheltered in the course of the first half of the warfare. 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 protected. Whole households have been killed whereas sheltering in Rafah.
A person assesses injury to his house 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 warfare.
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A view of the destruction throughout the southern Gaza metropolis of Rafah on Jan. 20, following greater than a yr of Israeli airstrikes and bombardment of the Palestinian enclave.
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Houses have been became piles of rubble in Rafah, which sheltered most individuals in the course of the first half of the warfare, 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 the town heart in the course of the ceasefire.
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When Israeli floor troops invaded the town in Might of their pursuit of Hamas, individuals have been compelled to flee once more. Israel’s navy 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 navy’s eight month-long incursion there demolished the town: Some 16,000 buildings are fully 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, in keeping with the most recent municipality figures.
Here’s a collection of photographs displaying the town earlier than Israeli floor forces entered in Might 2024 — the final time NPR was there — and what it seems to be like of their wake.
Rafah’s skyline and buildings will be seen on this picture from Feb. 14, 2024. Israeli troops invaded the town in pursuit of Hamas three months later, leaving the town in ruins and most buildings destroyed.
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The morgue inside Rafah’s important Abu Youssef al-Najjar hospital, seen right here on April 21, 2024, obtained a gentle stream of lifeless in the course of the first months of the warfare, earlier than Israeli floor troops invaded, closing off entry to the hospital.
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A girl carries a baby killed in an Israeli airstrike in Rafah on the important Abu Youssef al-Najjar hospital’s morgue on Might 6, 2024. The hospital was later destroyed, following Israel’s floor invasion of the town in pursuit of Hamas.
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A view of crowds in Rafah on Feb. 6, 2024, when the town was sheltering greater than 1,000,000 displaced Palestinians in the course of the first half of the warfare, 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 warfare.
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