15 months of the most intensive fighting ever seen between the IDF and Hamas have reduced vast swathes of Gaza to rubble and rebuilding is expected to take decades.
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00:00Celebrations in Gaza after the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas came into effect have turned
00:07to dismay as people begin returning to the ruins of their homes.
00:11Part of phase one sees IDF forces withdraw from densely populated areas and allow thousands
00:17of displaced Palestinians to return home.
00:20But as many found out on Sunday, there often wasn't anything to return to.
00:25Fifteen months of the most intensive fighting ever seen between the IDF and Hamas have reduced
00:30vast swathes of Gaza to rubble.
00:32And that was the sight that greeted people returning to the southern city of Khan Yunus.
00:37International experts say that Khan Yunus is the city that suffered the heaviest destruction
00:41of all settlements in Gaza.
00:43IDF forces withdrew from the city on Sunday after a fierce four-month battle against Hamas,
00:49the longest ground operation of the war.
00:51There were similar scenes in the north of the strip.
00:54Jabalia is home to the territory's largest refugee camp, and most of the structures
00:58there have been flattened.
01:00The camp was the scene of a renewed military operation which started in October last year.
01:05The IDF said it reinvaded the area in a bid to dismantle what it called a Hamas command
01:10and control center.
01:12Meanwhile, residents returning to Rafah found scenes of mass destruction across the city
01:16that was once a hub for displaced families.
01:20Some say they found human remains among the rubble of buildings.
01:23A local hospital director said the city's health system is completely out of service.
01:28In Rafah, there are at least three hospitals, in Gaza there are at least five hospitals,
01:35and in the northern part of Gaza we need three field hospitals so that the health system
01:40can recover from there.
01:42If we renovate some of the hospitals, but most of the hospitals in the Gaza Strip have
01:47been destroyed.
01:48They need to be rebuilt.
01:52The toll of the war has been immense and new details of its scope will now begin to emerge.
01:58Rebuilding if the ceasefire reaches its third and final phase is expected to take years.
02:03In their interim damage assessment report issued last year, the EU, UN and World Bank
02:08put the cost of rebuilding Gaza's critical infrastructure at 17.9 billion euros.