Soon after the Israeli army said its troops were pulling out, people began to emerge into the devastated landscape — the residents of Khan Younis returning to find what remained of their homes.

According to AFP, nearly 400,000 people lived in Khan Younis and its environs before October 7.

A straggle of men and boys riding donkey carts, bicycles and the odd pickup truck headed north out of Rafah in the far south of the Gaza Strip, where more than 1.5 million Palestinians had taken refuge from the relentless Israeli ground invasion and bombardment.

They passed the burned-out shell of the Al-Salam hospital, with almost all of the buildings around it razed to the ground.