Hopes for displaced Palestinian families in Egypt to return to Gaza

Abd al-Karim lost everything during the war including his home and a fruit farm that provided an income for the family. "The decision (to leave) was difficult and as I told you, I did not make the decision in the beginning. I endured for more than five months," he said.

The current phase of the truce is set to expire in early March and it is unclear if the sides will extend it. "I have one wish for the war to end, for peace to prevail in the country and for me to return, to return to my homeland," Abd al-Karim said. Abd al-Karim's family is one of several Palestinian families that fled the fighting for safety in the Egyptian city of el-Arish. His balcony in el-Arish looks out to the sea - which has for years served as the only escape for Palestinians in Gaza as the tiny Mediterranean enclave lived through a suffocating blockade.

Before the war, Gaza was under an Israeli and Egyptian blockade imposed after the Hamas militant group seized power in 2007. Four previous wars and divisions between Hamas and the Western-backed Palestinian Authority in the West Bank also took a toll on Gaza’s economy. But the latest war has turned the Gaza Strip into a landscape of destruction.

Abd al-Karim's eldest son, Karim recalled the family's hardship after their being displaced from northern Gaza because of the fighting. "We stayed in a small room for 200 days. After that, we left Gaza for el-Arish," he said.

The war has displaced an estimated 90% of Gaza’s population, and since a ceasefire took effect last month, many Palestinians have returned to find their former homes in ruins.

Palestinians have rejected the plans by Trump and Israel to depopulate the coastal enclave, despite massive destruction following the 15-month war between Israel and Hamas. "I wish we could go back to our country (Gaza), that I could return to my friends, relatives and uncles. And I wish for Gaza to return to the way it was (before the war), even better," Karim said.