Rafah 'erased' from the map

People no longer have to flee from place to place, but few can rebuild homes because Israel bars most construction material from entering Gaza. The ceasefire agreement's plan for the large-scale reconstruction of Gaza has never gotten off the ground because Israel and Hamas have failed to reach a deal on disarming the militant group.

In the meantime, Palestinians wrestle with tragedy. Najwa Abu Eita lost her 7-year-old daughter when Israeli forces struck her home in the central refugee camp of Nuseirat in September 2024, and her three other children were injured in the attack. Abu Eita lost an eye, her face remains heavily damaged and scarred, and she has trouble breathing.

A hairdresser before the war, she now has no work, living in a tent by the ruins of her home. Worst of all, she says, her children are frightened by her face and avoid looking at her.

"My four-year-old son tells me, 'Momma, I'll give you one of my eyes.' And inside, I'm weeping," she said.

Gaza's population is squeezed into about 40 percent of the tiny territory, and Israel's military controls the rest. Satellite imagery by Planet Labs PBC shows that the vast majority of buildings in the Israel-held part have been bulldozed or exploded down to piles of rubble, much of it after major fighting ended a year ago.

The Israeli military says it demolishes buildings to prevent their use by Hamas militants or to destroy the group's tunnel networks.

But a UN-appointed expert said in a February report that the scale of destruction of civilian housing and infrastructure in Gaza "is unprecedented even by the terrible standards of modern warfare since the 20th century".