Khan Younis ‘smells like death’ as Palestinians return to devastated homes | Israel War on Gaza News

“It smells like demise,” says Maha Thaer, a mom of 4, as she returns to her devastated residence in Khan Younis after Israeli troops introduced their withdrawal from southern Gaza.

“We don’t have a metropolis any extra, solely rubble. There may be completely nothing left. I couldn’t cease myself crying as I walked via the streets,” mentioned the 38-year-old on Sunday.

“All of the streets have been bulldozed. And the odor … I watched individuals digging and bringing out the our bodies,” mentioned Thaer, whose residence was partially destroyed.

Quickly after the Israeli military mentioned its troops have been pulling out, individuals started to emerge into the devastated panorama, the residents of Khan Younis returning to search out what remained of their houses.

Practically 400,000 individuals lived in Khan Younis and its environs earlier than October 7. A lot of the world is now in ruins after months of Israeli bombardment and heavy combating.

A straggle of males and boys driving donkey carts, bicycles and the odd pick-up truck headed north out of Rafah within the far south of the Gaza Strip, the place greater than 1.5 million Palestinians had taken refuge from the relentless Israeli floor invasion and bombardment.

They handed the burned-out shell of Dar Essalam Hospital, with nearly the entire buildings round it razed to the bottom.

Thaer, from the upmarket Hamad Metropolis district within the west of Khan Younis, mentioned she was “very shocked and unhappy”.

“There have been no partitions or home windows. A lot of the towers have been fully blown up,” she mentioned.

Thaer mentioned she would transfer again into her badly broken house, “although it’s not appropriate for residing, however it’s higher than tents”.

Her neighbours suffered a better misfortune. “They discovered their houses destroyed they usually don’t know the place they may go,” she mentioned.

Different Palestinians in Gaza carried a mattress on their heads within the hope they might nonetheless have 4 partitions to place it in.

A kind of who left Rafah on Sunday climbed on the highest of a heap of rubble in Khan Younis which as soon as had been a house.

Not a single construction nearby appeared untouched by the warfare.