After hearing that Israeli ground troops were leaving Khan Younis on Sunday, Walid Abu Amro traveled north from the tent he was sheltering in southern Gaza to check his home.
He said it was tough to navigate the neighborhood he once called home since many of the landmarks in the area were obliterated. Crushed, too, were his hopes that his family could return to their apartment.
“There’s nothing there, it’s all gone,” said Abu Amro, 43. “It’s like a meteor struck it.”
Khan Younis is the first major city that Palestinians have returned to since the worst of the fighting has subsided, and reflects what will likely lie ahead for the 1.7 million Palestinians who have been displaced by the war. Widespread destruction throughout northern and central Gaza means those hoping to go home soon will be returning to unlivable conditions.
It also indicates the enormous challenges Israel will face in Gaza after the war. Israel has said that it doesn’t intend to govern the enclave—which would involve fixing shattered public services, rebuilding vast areas destroyed during the war and restoring order—but it hasn’t articulated a plan for making the strip habitable again.
Talks continued in Cairo on Tuesday between the warring parties’ mediators. The question of how many Palestinians could return north and under what circumstances was a point of contention. Hamas wants all civilians to be allowed to return to their homes. Israel has resisted a mass return for what it says is the potential of Hamas militants mixing in with civilians and keeping their power in the enclave.
Khan Younis, a stronghold of Hamas during the war, was the site of particularly fierce fighting over the past four months. Israel’s military pulled out of Khan Younis on Sunday after saying that it battered Hamas’s four battalions there. Israel said its forces concluded their mission and they needed to recuperate and prepare for future operations.
As Khan Younis residents sheltering elsewhere heard about the Israeli exit, many returned to assess their properties and those of their friends and relatives unable to make the trip. What they found, they said in interviews, was utter destruction: the remains of what were once lively, tightknit communities marked by flattened buildings, rubble, torn roads traced with tank marks, and few signs of life.
Khan Younis, with a prewar population of about 400,000, was one of the largest cities in prewar Gaza and known for its once-sprawling open-air market and a historic castle. The city almost doubled in population as Gazans fled there earlier in the war to escape fighting in Gaza City. Many later fled Khan Younis to Rafah as Israel’s military operations advanced south.
Ami Ayalon, a former naval chief who also served as head of Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, said the Gaza Strip’s density is the main reason for the high levels of destruction. “We call it a battlefield when in actuality, it’s a series of very crowded cities,” Ayalon said.
Thaer Majayda, 30, a Palestinian who is sheltering in the nearby town of Al-Mawasi, said there was a marked difference in the level of destruction in Khan Younis between one month ago, when he was last there, and on Monday, when he went back to check on his home and clothing shop, both of which were destroyed.
“Khan Younis is not a place to live anymore,” he said. “I lost my home, my shop, my livelihood, everything. I don’t know what we will do when the war ends.”
Staff from the Palestine Red Crescent Society returned to Al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis this week after they said they were forced to evacuate by the Israeli military last month. Red Crescent crews this week found destroyed medical equipment, ambulances buried under sand and rubble, and graffiti spray painted on the walls, the humanitarian organization said.
“Even now, with the Israeli military withdrawal, we still can’t operate the hospital because of the scale of damage,” said Nebal Farsakh, spokeswoman for the Red Crescent, which operates the hospital.
The Israeli military didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Israel’s military achieved some of its stated aims in its Khan Younis campaign, while failing to succeed in others. It dismantled Hamas battalions, but didn’t kill or capture the group’s senior leadership, including Hamas’s Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar, who grew up in Khan Younis and was believed to be there earlier in the war, said Guy Aviad, a Hamas researcher and former Israeli military officer. Nor did the Israeli military free hostages believed to be in the city.
For Khan Younis residents, Israel’s military campaign completely upended life.
Mohammad Abu Watfa has a home in Rafah, where he says he has allowed dozens of friends and family to shelter. He traveled north to evaluate the home of his in-laws in Khan Younis. He returned to Rafah with bad news: “They lost everything,” he said.
Instead of moving back into their Khan Younis homes, many displaced Palestinians returned to their tents in Rafah after finding their dwellings destroyed or uninhabitable. They returned with whatever salvageable supplies they could gather in tow. Abu Watfa said he saw people hauling mattresses, blankets and wood for fire.
Even if people were lucky enough to have an intact home, seeing the wreckage of Khan Younis made many realize there is no point in moving back there, Abu Watfa said. “At least in Rafah there is some water, some services, some electricity with solar panels,” he said. “There is none of that in Khan Younis.”
More than 33,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Oct. 7, mostly women and children, according to health authorities, whose numbers don’t distinguish between militants and civilians. Israel’s invasion of the besieged enclave followed Oct. 7 attacks led by Hamas in Israel, which killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli authorities.
Abu Amro, who had gone to check on his own home, returned to his family’s tent in Rafah just in time for one of the last few evening meals of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. “I rushed back to tell them there is nothing out there for us right now—we are staying in a tent,” he said.
While coming to terms with knowing the building he made memories in—where he lived alongside his siblings and cousins and children—is forever gone, Abu Amro said he is grateful he and his kids are still alive.
“As long as we live, we will rebuild,” he said.
Anat Peled contributed to this article.
Write to Omar Abdel-Baqui at omar.abdel-baqui@wsj.com