Many stayed in constant touch with their loved ones during the hostilities. And despite the ceasefire, their fears and feelings about a conflict thousands of miles away are still raw.
The fighting between Israel and Hamas is straining U.S. interfaith groups, even during the cease-fire. They've lost some members because of the pressure. But others are forging ahead.
Parents on both sides had to find ways to protect their children. "Yes, the cease-fire has been enforced. But how are we going to deal with children traumatized by this?" asks a mother in Gaza.
Fully intact buildings stood right next to where others had been flattened. Families walked together in the streets, dressed-up in fancy clothes to visit relatives for Eid.
After 11 days of the worst fighting in the region since 2014, global leaders called for both sides to resolve the long-standing conflict to achieve lasting peace.
For a week and a half, Gazans have taken cover in their stairwells and other parts of the house, eating canned foods and hoping they can run out in time — if an airstrike warning comes.
After shrapnel struck where his young son plays, a father in the Gaza Strip says his neighbors are traumatized by the violence: "We just don't want to die under the rubble of our houses."