Mohammad Al-Jadba, from Al-Zarqa in eastern Gaza, is a thirty-one-year-old Ph.D. student in geography, but his connection to land in Palestine goes beyond academic interest. Before the war, Al-Jadba worked as a geography teacher for six years. He and his family were displaced to southern Gaza in May 2025. When a ceasefire agreement was announced that October, he returned to the closest safe point near his home and farmland. Al-Jadba says the destruction was so extensive he could only recognize the property by a forty-meter-deep water well located on the land.