Palestinians return to flattened homes

EVEN before the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas was fully in place Sunday, Palestinians in the war-battered Gaza Strip began to return to the remains of the homes they had evacuated during the 15-month war.

- Khan Younis

Majida Abu Jarad made quick work of packing the contents of her family's temporary lodging in the sprawling tent city of Muwasi, just north of the strip's southern border with Egypt.

At the start of the war, they were forced to flee their house in Gaza's northern town of Beit Hanoun, where they used to gather around the kitchen table or on the roof on summer evenings amid the scent of roses and jasmine.