Gazans try to rebuild destroyed homes and lives as fragile ceasefire with Israel holds

Read the Full Transcript

• Geoff Bennett:

  This first phase of the Israel-Hamas cease-fire is supposed to end on Saturday, and negotiations to extend it to a second phase are now at a standstill.

• Amna Nawaz:

  But during the pause in fighting over the last month, some 600,000 Palestinians have returned to Northern Gaza.

  And "NewsHour" videographer Shams Odeh in Gaza sent us some of their stories as they seek to pry normality from destruction.

  Gaza City's Shejaiya neighborhood is in ruins, building after building, house after house crushed and burned, but its residents resilient, among them, 24-year-old Moayed Harazeen, the path to his apartment paved by rubble, but every day he's making it better.

• Moayed Harazeen, Gaza City Resident (through interpreter):

  The only way to enter our house was to get on the destroyed roof of the home next to us and jump over. It was difficult to enter the house. On the first day, I cleaned the stairs and removed the rubble, despite the difficulty of trying to enter the house in the first place.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Like many Gazans, Moayed is clearing the rubble from his home with his own bare hands.

• Moayed Harazeen (through interpreter):

  When I was cleaning, I was overcome with sadness to think how life was a year-and-a-half ago. I thank our home truly for staying upright, despite all the attacks it endured.

• Amna Nawaz:

  He too somehow endures. Every day, Moayed documents his journey of rebuilding to make his home feel like a home again. When he looks out, there's destruction as far as the eye can see.

  But in his videos posted to Instagram, he shares moments that reveal, even in war, life goes on.

• Moayed Harazeen (through interpreter):

  This is very difficult to remove rubble and stone. This is hard work and labor. After a difficult day, seeing people's positive comments on my videos really helps me keep going.

• Amna Nawaz:

  So far, he's transformed his bedroom from this to this, and turned their living room from this to this, not as homely as it once was, but habitable.

• Moayed Harazeen (through interpreter):

  We are not trying to romanticize reality. Reality is how you see it. It is a painful struggle. Gaza needs you now more than ever. Everything is destroyed. We need help removing the rubble and rebuilding and starting our lives over.

• Amna Nawaz:

  This month, President Trump reiterated his vision of U.S. ownership over Gaza.

  Donald Trump, President of the United States: We will have Gaza. What is that? No reason to buy. There is nothing to buy. It's Gaza. It's a war-torn area. We're going to take it. We're going to hold it. We're going to cherish it.

• Question:

  Take it under what authority? It is sovereignty territory.

• Donald Trump:

  Under the U.S. authority.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Forcibly displacing Gazans would amount to a war crime. Moayed says, for him and millions of Gazans, this is their home and they're not going anywhere.

• Moayed Harazeen (through interpreter):

  My message to Trump or any person out there is clear. We were displaced for a year-and-a-half and were in pain and struggle. It's ridiculous to think that we have to leave Gaza and immigrate elsewhere. We love our homes and neighborhoods.

• Amna Nawaz:

  But many Gazans don't even have a home to return to. At this cemetery east of Gaza City, families now live next to the dead.

• Ahmed Saad, Displaced Gazan (through interpreter):

  Every time we try to find a spot to put a tent, we find graves or bodies or bones, as you see there.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Thirty-five-year-old Ahmed Saad gave us a tour of their macabre reality.

• Ahmed Saad (through interpreter):

  When we got here to set up the tents, we found bones. Here's one here. Anything bones we find, we have to put in this hole here, which is a grave. And what you're standing on right now is also a grave.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Ahmed has been helping this community to build up tents, but every day brings a new horror.

• Ahmed Saad (through interpreter):

  We found a body here when putting up the tent. Here it is. I dug out half of it and the other half is still there. Is this not a shroud? This is it. This is the struggle we are experiencing.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Gaza's official death toll has crossed 48,000. Human rights groups believe that to be an underestimate. Grave sites are full of unidentified remains, and many are still buried under the rubble.

• Ahmed Saad (through interpreter):

  We are dead like these bodies here. We have no address, and no one is asking about us. So what we're asking for is for those who have any mercy in their hearts or leaders to come and see our conditions.

• Amna Nawaz:

  The temporary cease-fire is shaky. A permanent cease-fire is uncertain, at best. But even an end to this war would mark just the beginning of a long road ahead to rebuild Gaza.

Improved audio player available on our mobile page