As the long-awaited ceasefire comes into effect, here’s a look – in 6 graphics – at what Gaza is like after 15 months of war.

For all the military might Israel deployed in Gaza, it failed to remove Hamas from power, one of its central war aims.

It took us a few minutes to accept that this pile of rubble was our home,” said Islam Dahliz, whose family was ordered by Israeli forces to evacuate Rafah in May.

More than 2,400 aid trucks have entered the Gaza Strip since the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas took effect, according to United Nations officials, as attention shifted to rebuilding the enclave devastated during 15 months of intensive Israeli bombardment.

The ceasefire came into effect Sunday after an initial three-hour delay, during which almost 20 more Palestinians were killed, according to medics in the decimated Palestinian territory. Under the terms of the deal,

As the Gaza ceasefire takes hold, aid workers caution that the toughest challenges are yet to come, describing the truce as only the first step on a long road to recovery.

Even before the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas was fully in place, Palestinians in the war-battered Gaza Strip began to return to the remains of the homes they had evacuated during the 15-month war.

According to a report by Gaza's Ministry of Public Works and Housing, the Israel-Hamas war has left hundreds of thousands of homes destroyed or partially damaged, while some 82,000 are deemed entirely uninhabitable.

In Gaza, Israeli forces shot and killed a 12-year-old Palestinian child in the southern city of Rafah on Monday, in what witnesses called a blatant violation of the ceasefire deal. Video of the assault shows Israeli forces opening fire on another person attempting to retrieve the boy’s limp body.

In neighbourhoods levelled by 15 months of war with Israel, Hamas officials are overseeing the clearance of rubble in the wake of Sunday's ceasefire. The group's gunmen are guarding aid convoys on Gaza's dusty roads,

A cease-fire agreement between Israel and terrorist group Hamas began Sunday with the release of three Israeli hostages, in exchange for some 90 Palestinian prisoners in.