Almost a week after Israel announced a unilateral ceasefire in the Palestinian territory of Gaza Strip, life in the costal strip recovered gradually on Friday from the shock of the Israeli attacks although it's still very hard for those homeless to get shelters and some of the damaged infrastructure were being repaired.
Since the calmness on January 18, traffic has resumed in most parts of the urban area of the populous city. Traffic policemen can be seen in the streets, who are trying to keep order as all kinds of vehicles emerged in the narrow streets.
Some parts of the streets are still blocked by rubbles of destroyed buildings that were hit by Israeli air strikes in the 22- day conflict between Israel and Hamas-led Palestinian militant groups.
"We have to continue our daily life here," said a young man, who gave his name as Ammar, adding "We have no choice but to stay here and keep on living under this kind of circumstance."
Mohamed Jabal, who owns a flower shop in downtown Gaza, opened his business on Tuesday, two days after the ceasefire, but saying the business is just so so.
"Most people just want to store up food in case of more conflicts in the future and few people came to my shop to buy flowers," said Jabal, adding that during the 22-day conflict almost all shops in the city were closed.
Supermarkets, cafes and even internet bars opened one by one after the two conflicting sides announced ceasefire respectively.
Mohamud Abu Rajab, manager of a downtown supermarket, said his shop has not been totally closed even during the conflict.
"I opened my supermarket for some three to four hours during the conflict, now the shop is open for all the day," said Rajab.
"But the problem is that there is no enough goods in my supermarket," said Rajab, explaining that under the Israeli siege there is no enough daily goods allowed into the strip.
Meanwhile, the life is more difficult for those affected by the Israeli attacks.
In the northern suburb of Gaza City, where a large number of houses were hit or even totally destroyed in the conflict, people are busy working in the rubbles to collect some clothes, furniture or even try to find missing family members.
An old man called Abdulla, whose house was partly damaged by Israeli air strikes, stood on top of a pile of ruins of bricks and watched his sons who were repairing the wall.
"An Israeli rocket hit the wall of my house and we have to repair it since it's very cold in this season," said Abdulla, adding that "fortunately nobody was hurt."
But Rashad al-Asali, who is in his 50s, is not so lucky. Not very far away from Abdulla's house, several buildings including Rashad's house were totally destroyed.
"There is nothing remained," said Rashad, whose 24-year-old son was also killed by Israeli air strikes, saying some 30 people of his family have no place to live.
"Who can help us to rebuild our homes?" asked the old man.
Hamas housing ministry had earlier estimated that 4,000 houses were completely destroyed and 20,000 houses were badly or partially destroyed during the 22-day of the Israeli military offensive on Gaza Strip that ended on Sunday.
Gaza Emergency Chief Mo'aweya Hassanein had earlier estimated that around 1,400 Palestinians were killed and 5,500 wounded, almost half of them were civilians including men, women and children.
The deposed Hamas Government said on Thursday that it would pay financial compensation to Gaza families who have either their houses destroyed or its members killed during the Israeli military offensive.
Taher al-Noono, Government's Spokesman told a news conference on Thursday evening held in Gaza that his government will pay 4,000 Euros to each family that has its house completely destroyed and 2,000 Euros to the families that have their house partially destroyed.
Al-Noono also said that Hamas government will pay 1,000 Euros for each Palestinian killed during the offensive and 500 Euros will be paid to each one wounded.