MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Israeli troops withdrew from the Jabalya refugee camp in north Gaza last week. The three-week offensive forced tens of thousands of Palestinians to flee. As Hadeel Al-Shalchi reports, some are now returning to see what's become of their homes. And a warning - this story includes graphic descriptions of the aftermath of war.
AMIN ABED: (Speaking Arabic).
HADEEL AL-SHALCHI, BYLINE: Amin Abed is from Jabalya, a place once densely populated and that saw some of the fiercest fighting during the war.
ABED: (Speaking Arabic).
AL-SHALCHI: He says the attacks were intensely horrific, with shelling, bombs and snipers, so Abed packed up his family and fled west. And after weeks of displacement, it was time to go back home to Jabalya last week.
ABED: (Speaking Arabic).
AL-SHALCHI: "I walked on foot half of the way home," he says. "Then I found a donkey cart and rode it the rest of the way."
But Abed didn't find much there.
ABED: (Speaking Arabic).
AL-SHALCHI: "The scene was frightening," he says. "My house was rubble, the doors and windows blown out."
And Abed says the neighborhood was terrifying.
ABED: (Speaking Arabic).
AL-SHALCHI: The corpses he saw on the street were charred, he says, being eaten by dogs.
ABED: (Speaking Arabic).
AL-SHALCHI: "I personally had to collect the remains of my uncle and cousin in a bag," he says.
Their bodies were burned by the sun. The Israeli military is expanding its operations across Gaza, and Palestinians say they feel like nowhere is safe.
ABED: (Speaking Arabic).
AL-SHALCHI: "It was a miracle we were able to escape," Abed says.
The Israeli military went back to Jabalya four months after originally withdrawing. It said Hamas had regrouped there. In that same mission, the military said that it had recovered the bodies of seven hostages taken by Hamas on October 7. With more than one operation in Jabalya so far, Abed says, who knows if there won't be another?
ABED: (Speaking Arabic).
AL-SHALCHI: "Of course we're afraid of another attack," he says. "Israeli military believes that a good Palestinian is a dead Palestinian."
Hadeel Al-Shalchi, NPR News, Ramallah.
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