More than half a million Palestinians have returned to the northern Gaza Strip since the ceasefire entered its second day, hoping to find their homes in Gaza City, which has been transformed into a battlefield of death and destruction.

"I don't know what to say," Saher Abu al-Ata told AFP."The pictures are more powerful than any words: destruction, destruction, and more destruction."

In mid-September, the Israeli army launched a massive ground offensive to seize control of Gaza City, which Israel considers one of Hamas's last strongholds in the Gaza Strip.

The city still housed around one million people in August, according to the United Nations, and many of its buildings are now windowless, destroyed, or reduced to rubble.

On Saturday, Palestinians walked through streets covered in gray and rubble, including a large number of men, most of them without personal belongings, according to AFP videos.

The Al-Rantisi Hospital for Children and Cancer Patients was destroyed, its ceilings collapsed, and its intensive care rooms reduced to piles of overturned beds and scattered equipment.

Losing “Beautiful Gaza”

On Saturday, as the Israeli army withdrew to the agreed-upon lines inside the Gaza Strip, tens of thousands of Gaza residents continued to head north along the coastal Rashid Street, on foot or by car, some carrying mattresses and blankets.

Raja Salmi described the distance of more than fifteen kilometers between Khan Yunis, where she was displaced, and Gaza City as"very exhausting," stressing that it is a "long" road.

“We walked for hours, and with every step I felt scared and anxious about my home,” she said from Gaza City.

The Civil Defense in Gaza reported on Saturday that more than half a million Palestinians have returned to Gaza City since the ceasefire in the Strip went into effect on Friday afternoon.

Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Basal said,"More than half a million people have returned to Gaza City since yesterday," Friday.

When Raja Salmi finally arrived in the Ramal neighborhood, she couldn't find her home.

"It's no longer there, it's just a pile of rubble," she said."I stood in front of it and cried. All the memories have turned to dust."

In the spring, the United Nations estimated that about 92 percent of residential buildings in the Gaza Strip had been damaged or destroyed since the war began.

Raja Salmi asserted that two years after the war that erupted in response to an unprecedented attack launched by Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023, “Gaza City is no longer what it was… and everything in us seems dead.”

Sami Musa, 28, echoed her sentiments after returning to the city without his family to “assess the situation and the condition of our home” in the Shati refugee camp.

He confirmed that the house was still standing but damaged."But what I saw in the city was shocking," he said.

He added: “I felt like I had entered a ghost town, not Gaza: the streets were destroyed and ruined, there was sand everywhere, and many of the houses had collapsed or were completely looted.”

He spoke of “the smell of death” and “total destruction” to the point where he didn’t recognize the places.

As Israel and Hamas agreed to the first phase of US President Donald Trump's 20-point plan to end the war, Moussa said,"We lost beautiful Gaza, and we are still afraid of what will happen."

On Thursday, the eve of the ceasefire taking effect, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) described the situation in northern Gaza as"catastrophic," where famine was declared two months ago and where "food aid has been virtually deprived" for about a month.