One man who had returned to his home in Jabalia told the BBC it was “not possible to describe” the destruction around him.

“You’re speaking to me while I’m clearing a space to put up a tent… We are trying to manage ourselves and find a way to live here,” 48-year-old Imad Ali al-Zain said over the phone.

“I was happy and chanting on the way back, but when I reached my home I was disappointed because of the disastrous scene in front of me. I wished I’d never come.”

The UN estimates that about 70% of the Gaza Strip’s buildings have been damaged or destroyed since October 2023, with much of the worst destruction in the north.

Sam Rose, acting director of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) in Gaza, told the BBC the population in northern Gaza would likely “be doubling in the next few days”.

“What they’re going back to, many of them, are scenes of complete devastation. They know before they travel that their homes are likely to be destroyed or severely damaged, but they want to go home anyway,” he said.

“Since the ceasefire came into effect a week ago, basic aid supplies have been coming in, so we’re able to provide food, some water, basic shelter supplies, some monitoring of particularly vulnerable cases. But it’s a massive, massive effort ahead of us.”