KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — Whereas there was pleasure on the faces of some Palestinians returning to the Gaza Strip this week after two years of war, many mentioned they discovered their outdated neighborhoods unrecognizable from the relentless combating that lowered lots of the buildings to rubble.
Following the historic ceasefire settlement enacted on Monday, tens of hundreds of displaced residents and practically 2,000 Palestinians launched from Israeli prisons made it again to Gaza, solely to search out themselves homeless.
Buses carrying Palestinians launched from Israeli prisons beneath a Gaza ceasefire and hostage change take care of Palestinian factions arrive outdoors the Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis, Gaza Strip, October 13, 2025.
Nurphoto/NurPhoto by way of Getty Photographs
“After all, I used to be completely happy about being launched, however not completely happy of being displaced with no security in place, no life requirements,” mentioned 23-year-old Abdullah Wa’el Mohammed Farhan, one of many former Palestinian prisoners freed on Monday as a part of a ceasefire deal that President Donald Trump helped dealer.
Standing outdoors a tent in Khan Younis, the place he and his household live, Farhan advised ABC Information that he was imprisoned for 20 months because the struggle with Israel raged on. He mentioned that whereas detained, he and the opposite Palestinian prisoners had been “utterly remoted from the world.”
Palestinian Abdullah Wa’el Mohammed Farhan stands out outdoors his household’s tent in Khan Younis, Gaza, Oct. 14, 2025, after being launched from an Israeli jail.
Diaa Ostaz / ABC Information
“Once I was advised about my launch, I didn’t imagine it as a result of greater than as soon as [Israeli authorities] advised us about our launch and moved us from one jail to a different whereas being tortured and overwhelmed,” Farhan mentioned.
ABC Information has contacted the Israel Protection Forces and the Israel Jail Service concerning the allegations from Farhan and different launched prisoners about being tortured and subjected to hunger whereas incarcerated, however haven’t obtained a response.
Fahan’s sister, 21-year-old Samaher Farhan, advised ABC Information that whereas she is grateful they’ve been reunited, she conceded that she was saddened her brother needed to return to a group wrecked by the struggle.
Buildings destroyed throughout two years of Israeli military bombardments are seen close to the seashore in Gaza Metropolis, Oct. 15, 2025.
AP
“Once I noticed Abdullah yesterday, it was blended emotions of happiness and disappointment due to how he seemed earlier than he went to jail and the way he seemed now,” Samaher Farhan mentioned.
She mentioned she hopes to renew residing of their dwelling, which remains to be intact however in an space that’s not liveable. In the intervening time, she mentioned her household resides in a tent.
“We felt unhealthy that this isn’t a worthy welcoming of a prisoner,” Samaher Farhan mentioned. “How can he come out to a worn tent? So, it was a tragic feeling. I even tried to not meet him or sit with him for a very long time as a result of the scenario is dire on this worn tent.”
She mentioned that when her brother was taken prisoner, their neighborhood was nonetheless in fine condition, including, “It was barely 1% of the destruction we have now now.”
The United Nations and different organizations have reported that there is no such thing as a secure place within the Gaza Strip, which is about 25 miles lengthy by 7.5 miles extensive. The IDF has designated many of the war-torn territory a “no-go zone,” issuing evacuation orders for civilians there, based on the U.N. Workplace for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
An aerial view reveals the destruction within the Al-Katiba space of Khan Yunis, in southern Gaza Strip, following the enforcement of the cease-fire and the withdrawal of Israeli forces to the designated buffer zone, on October 12, 2025.
Anadolu by way of Getty Photographs
In keeping with a damage assessment by the U.N. Satellite tv for pc Centre, 83% of all constructions in Gaza Metropolis, the capital of the Palestinian territory, are broken. The evaluation recognized not less than 17,734 constructions which were destroyed, about 43% of the overall variety of constructions broken.
In a report issued on Tuesday, the U.N. estimated that it’ll value round $70 billion to reconstruct Gaza.
In its newest report on Wednesday, the Palestinian Ministry of Well being mentioned that almost 68,000 Palestinians had been killed within the Gaza Strip in the course of the struggle, which began when Hamas terrorists launched a shock assault on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing greater than 1,200 individuals and taking about 250 others as hostages.
The ultimate 20 residing Israeli hostages had been launched by Hamas on Monday as a part of the ceasefire deal.
Shadi Abu Sido, a Palestinian photojournalist who was amongst these launched from an Israeli jail on Monday, mentioned he was shocked by the widespread devastation that has occurred in Gaza since he was detained in March 2024.
Launched prisoner Shadi Abu Sido speaks to reporters after returning to Khan Younis, Gaza, Oct. 13, 2025, after being held in an Israeli jail.
Adli Abu Taha
“I entered Gaza and located it to be like a scene of Judgment Day,” Sido mentioned in a video testimony. “This isn’t Gaza. The place is the world?”
He mentioned that whereas he was in jail, he was advised by an Israeli jail officer that his spouse and two youngsters had been killed in the course of the struggle. However as soon as he returned to his dwelling in Khan Younis, he mentioned he discovered that was not the case.
“I heard her voice, I heard my youngsters, I used to be astonished. It can’t be defined, they had been alive,” Sido mentioned in an interview with Reuters.
However for an additional Palestinian prisoner, the euphoria of being freed was rapidly changed by agony when he discovered his three youngsters — ages 2, 5 and eight — had died within the struggle.
A launched Palestinian prisoner, pictured right here, October 13, 2025, in Khan Younis, Gaza, holding a bracelet he made in jail as a birthday current for one among his daughters, solely to be taught she and two of his different daughters had been killed in the course of the struggle.
@shawqi_maghnam / IG
In a video testimony, the person, whose identify was not launched, is seen falling to his knees and sobbing.
Within the video, the person held a bracelet within the palm of his hand and mentioned he had made it in jail and deliberate to offer it to his youngest daughter.
“I made this for my daughter, whose birthday was purported to be in 5 days,” he mentioned within the video.
ABC Information’ Invoice Hutchinson contributed to this report.
