DEVASTATED GAZA

A boy is looking for his toys in what is left of the family house, where the walls are full of gunshots. The Israeli-Hamas war lasted for 22 days, and in the wake of the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, surviving Palestinians returned to homes crushed beyond repair and mourning of lost relatives. 13 Israelis and more than 1300 Palestinians were killed. An estimated 4000 buildings were destroyed. 50.000 Gazans were left homeless, and the areas where Israeli tanks and artillery poured in at the start of the ground war are devastated: Beit Lahiya, El Atatra and large sections of Jabaliya, as well as the outer Gaza City neighbourhoods of Zeitoun and Toufah.

A young girl in the Az Seyafa area north of Beit Lahiya in Gaza City.

Hamas supporters during the first demonstration after the war. Thousands of people walked through Gaza City and ended in the rubble of one of Hamas’s top military leaders, Nizar Rayyan, who was killed in the early days of the war.

Anywhere in Gaza, where Israeli soldiers made camp during the war, it has led to massive destruction. In Beit Lahiya a young man is digging for the remains of his mother’s grave in the graveyard, which Israeli tanks have ploughed through.

More than 4000 buildings are destroyed in Gaza and more than 20.000 severely damaged.

Two days after the war ended, shops and stalls started to reopen, as families returned to the totally bombed out central Gaza City.

Mohammed Derba will not get older than 21 years. The young Gaza fisherman lies braindead at Shifa hospital in Gaza City. His beard is neat and his chest raises and lowers itself as the respirator ensures that his lungs and heart function. But in a few days he will get infections. He will get pneumonia, and his heart rate will decrease and become erratic. And then he will die a natural death. Alone. Without a single family member by his side.

Nazek Al Kabari (right) have just returned to the ruins of his home, and the man and five of his eight children sit and drink tea in front of the house. Virtually the entire Abed Rabbo district in Jabaliya in Gaza City has been razed to the ground. “What should we do? We have no money. We don’t have anywhere else to live? All our savings are gone. God bless that none of us is hurt, but we have nothing left to live for.”

Mosques and muslim prayer halls have not escaped the relentless bombardment of Hamas targets in Gaza by Israel, which claims the Islamic militants misuse some of the holy sites as weapons depots and command centers. The Geneva Conventions says attacks on places of worship are war crimes.

The narrow, secret tunnels used for smuggling goods, arms and people across the border at Rafah under the border between Egypt and Gaza. About 80 percent of the tunnels was supposed to be destroyed or damaged in the three-week Israeli airstrike of Gaza, but a week after they are in the process of being repaired. Ahmed, who will remain anonymous, is deep within a damaged tunnel to dig it out.

A house in Beit Lahiya is completely destroyed by Israeli soldiers. Refrigerators, computers and water tanks are shot to pieces, money and jewelry is stolen and the walls are painted with Hebrew graffiti and large Stars of David. The children immediately started to look for their toys.

In every corner of Gaza Zoo and in every cage lie dead animals. Before the war it was attracting families – the zoo drew up to 1000 visitors each day.

A family returning to their home in Beit Lahiya.

A dove takes off from one of the numerous ruins of Jabaliya in eastern Gaza City, while the residents are looking for their belongings in the background.

The 22 day war has prompted most Palestinians to stop praying in mosques. Islamic scholars have issued a fatwa, or religious ruling, allowing Muslims to merge the five daily prayers to reduce the time spent in mosques.

For the first time in four weeks, the people of Gaza could go to Friday prayer without fear of bombs. Next to the ruins of the Al-Khalofa mosque in Jabaliya, Hamas spokesman Mushir Al-Masri spoke. The message was clear and predictable: Israel has not wiped out Hamas, Israel are cowards and the Islamic fighters are martyrs and heroes.

For the first time in four weeks, the people of Gaza could go to Friday prayer without fear of bombs. Next to the ruins of the Al-Khalofa mosque in Jabaliya, Hamas spokesman Mushir Al-Masri spoke. The message was clear and predictable: Israel has not wiped out Hamas, Israel are cowards and the Islamic fighters are martyrs and heroes.

Employees of the Tax Department inspects the damage to their workplace. The is a distinct smell of corpses, so they begin digging in the rubble, but there is still burning phosphorus, so they quickly give up looking for their deceased friends.

Palestinian medical officials said about 1300 Palestinians were killed and thousands more were injured. Thirteen Israelis died during the conflict. The Danish doctor Bakhtyar Baram kiss one of the Gaza war victims goodbye in the operating room at Shifa Hospital.

The village men are gathered after a funeral in Beit Lahiya. Mourning ceremonies dotted the Gaza Strip as Palestinians gathered to remember loved ones among the 1300 people killed by Israeli forces.

Palestinian boys walk next to dead horses after an Israeli military strike in al-Atatra in Gaza City.

It is the first day in school after the Gaza war, and school psychologist are busy talking with traumatized children at Omnel Fahem School in Beit Lahiya. Six year old Abdel Aziz is one of them. The reopening of schools, a week after a tentative cease-fire, marked a small step back to normalcy for Gaza’s 1.4 million residents.

Everywhere in the worst affected areas in Gaza families come home to houses completely destroyed by Israeli soldiers. A family lives in the remains of their house in al-Atatra in Gaza City. The Israeli-Hamas war lasted for 22 days, and in the wake of the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, surviving Palestinians returned to homes crushed beyond repair and mourning of lost relatives. 13 Israelis and more than 1300 Palestinians were killed.

Tens of thousands of children returned to schools across Gaza on Saturday after three weeks of war, playing games for some relief from the devastation and telling friends and teachers about the explosions they heard and relatives they lost. Many students in the Omnel Fahem school in Beit Lahiya shoved up with no school uniform, as it was lost in collapsed houses.

Many Palestinians left houses and cars behind when the war started.