Gaza is experiencing decisive moments. This Monday marks the end of the four days of truce agreed by Israel and Hamas for the exchange of hostages and prisoners, as well as to allow access to humanitarian aid for a population that is in a critical situation.

International mediators are pushing for an extension of this pause, a position in which they seem both sides agreeaccording to his latest statements.

While they try to reach an agreement to extend this trucethe inhabitants of Gaza are taking advantage of this “pause” in the conflict to come see their houses and check whether or not they are still standing.

A laSexta team accompanies Ali during his return home to Shati, north of the Gaza Strip. “This is hell“, he acknowledges. A momentary return during the last hours of the truce that allows him to say goodbye to his father and nephew, killed in an Israeli bombing

“Here, with our own hands, my little brother and I dug the grave for both of us,” he recalls, making it clear that they are neither “Hamas nor Fatah.”

Like him, thousands of residents in Gaza are rushing the ceasefire to collect what little they have left before the attacks resume. Many people cannot bear the pain and, through tears, they put their hands to their heads seeing how their home has been reduced to rubble.

According to ‘The Guardian’, between 40% and 50% of the houses in the north, the most affected area, have been attacked. They denounce that Israel does not allow them to come within a kilometer of the border, nor to set foot on the sea.

“I thought I would make a living fishing but the Israelis shoot at us,” says one of the residents. Many have chosen to defy this prohibition by not having anything to bathe their children with.

In the south, even children wait their turn, cylinder in hand, to get some fuel, since at night the cold lurks. “There is no house, no shelter, no clothing, no food, no water,” they lament, highlighting that they no longer have anything to help them stay warm.