Mustafa al-Ashqar has a simple explanation for why he and his family have returned to the Shujaiya neighborhood of Gaza City: “We missed our home and we were exhausted from living in tents.”

Al-Ashqar, 47, fled Shujaiya in December 2023, along with his wife and five children.

They went to al-Tuffah, another area in Gaza City. The family somehow survived despite how they had to go without food for long periods, drink unsafe water and how al-Tuffah was itself besieged by the Israeli military.

Al-Ashqar and his family have only come back to Shujaiya following the ceasefire which went into effect in January. With part of its ceiling collapsed and the walls destroyed or badly damaged, he found that his home was not fit to live in.

Nonetheless, he undertook repairs of one room, removed some rubble and used fabric to erect makeshift walls. “The conditions are difficult but I now feel safe in my home,” he said.

Moving from a tent into a building was vital. “I wanted to protect my family from the severe cold,” he said.

Al-Ashqar is acutely aware that everyone remains at risk.

Israel has continued committing acts of violence in Gaza, breaching the ceasefire deal. The memory of how the house shook whenever an airstrike occurred nearby also remains raw.

Yet al-Ashqar is adamant that he will stay in his home. “There is no alternative,” he said.

Approximately 92 percent of homes have been destroyed or damaged in Gaza.

The devastation has not undermined a widespread determination to try and resume life.

“Nightmare”

The scenes of people who had been displaced southwards moving back to the north recently have been dramatic. Less attention has been paid in the past few weeks to the plight of people who had been uprooted within southern Gaza.

Sidqi al-Najjar, 43, is a carpenter from Khuzaa, a town near the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis.

Before the genocidal war, he lived in a three-story building. After it was bombed by Israel in January 2024, he and his family were displaced to al-Mawasi, another area in southern Gaza, where they set up a tent.

Just two rooms are still standing in the family’s Khuzaa home today and the family has returned there.

Al-Najjar said that “I felt a sense of despair” when he saw his old home. But with help from relatives, he soon got down to the business of clearing the debris from the two rooms that were still standing.

“Both rooms are dangerous,” al-Najjar said. “Things fall on us while we sleep. I am constantly afraid that the ceiling might collapse on top of us.”

The costs of cement and other construction materials have skyrocketed since October 2023. By some accounts, the prices of such material have increased by as much as 400 percent.

Al-Najjar cannot afford to rebuild his home properly. As the remains of the building were exposed to the elements, he has undertaken a rudimentary patch up job using metal and fabric.

“Living in a house on the brink of collapse is still better than living in tents,” he said. “The cold conditions had become a nightmare that we couldn’t adapt to.”

The family’s tent had been pitched on a beach in al-Mawasi. The family’s situation was especially desperate when the tent was flooded by strong tides in September last year.

“The occupation has left us with nothing,” he said. “All our possessions have been destroyed – our homes, farmland and memories.”

“Catastrophe”

Said al-Shurfa, 36, grew up in al-Bureij refugee camp, central Gaza. His home was attacked by Israel in June last year.

Even though it is in ruins, al-Shurfa regards his home as preferable to the dilapidated tent in which he and his family had been forced to live.

“My house was almost completely destroyed,” he said.

As its windows and doors were shattered, he has now covered them with pieces of cloth. He managed to extract some of the family’s old beds and blankets from under the rubble, so that they have something to sleep on.

“When we leave or enter the house, we have to climb over a lot of rubble,” he said. “But that is better than living in tents.”

A permanent ceasefire is vital in order to get the long and arduous process of reconstruction underway.

“We need to end the nightmare of war,” al-Shurfa said. “What happened was a real catastrophe.”

Taghreed Ali is a journalist based in Gaza.

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