Some of the half-million people displaced by a month of fierce fighting in Gaza began to return home Tuesday as a 72-hour truce got underway.
Carrying mattresses and with children in tow, Gazans left U.N. shelters to trek back to neighborhoods where entire blocks have been destroyed. Sitting on a pile of debris on the edge of the northern town of Beit Lahiya, Zuhair Hjaila, a 33-year-old father of four, said he had lost his house and his supermarket. "This is complete destruction," he said. "I never thought I would come back to find an earthquake zone."
