With over 48,000 dead and 111,000 wounded, according to Hamas’s Ministry of Health, the population has been left drained and traumatised by the relentless violence.
Over 90 per cent of Palestinians in Gaza were displaced at least once during the war, according to the UN.
Of those who returned home after a ceasefire took effect on January 19, many have had to pitch tents next to their old homes, which they found destroyed.
The contrast between the land they left and the one they are returning to is stark for returning prisoners.
“During our six months of detention, we were completely cut off from the world, we got no information on the war in Gaza”, Mohammed, a freed prisoner who declined to share his last name, said.
“The scale of the destruction shocked us, Gaza is in ruins, there is rubble everywhere”, he said.
“With the (Israeli) occupation of Gaza, I’m afraid they’ll arrest us again at any moment,” the recently freed prisoner added.
