Back in the North, the Gazaouis are struggling to envisage a future
More than half a million Palestinians have returned to northern Gaza in recent weeks, to find overwhelming destruction and little humanitarian aid.
By Ahmed Ahmed
Mohammad al-Amarin would never have imagined being able to return home in the Zaytoun district of Gaza. This father of four 34-year-old children and chef of Al-Taboon, one of the best known pizzerias in Gaza, had been moved five times since his forced departure from his home during the Earth’s incursion Israel in November 2023. He had stayed in southern Gaza with his family and even collaborated with World Central Kitchen to feed thousands of other Palestinians moved to tent camps. But he was still looking forward to the day he could return to the North.
Al-Amarin was one of the more than 586,000 displaced Palestinians who started their return trip in the days that followed on January 27, when the Israeli army opened the passage through the netzarim corridor-a strip of land from land Six kilometers that crosses Gaza in two and whose Israeli forces only recently withdrew after occupying the area for more than a year. Most of these people were forcibly moved in November 2023, when Israeli forces said northern Gaza military zone.
Al-Amarin made the difficult trip to the north alone; He wanted to make sure his house was still standing and habitable before his 70 -year -old mother and his young daughters joined him. By putting his feet in his house, which had only been partially destroyed by the bombing, Al-Amarin was overwhelmed by emotion. “It was like a dream of being at home again after all that I had endured. I cried. I kissed the walls and the floor. I started cleaning the rubble immediately, when my wife and daughters begged me to bring them home, “he told +972.
However, the joy of returning home was already tarnished by the total destruction scenes that welcomed Al-Amarin. “I was filled (both) with tears of joy and pain while walking in the streets of Gaza,” he recalls. “I was grateful to be able to go home, but the place where I grew up, formerly known for its beauty, had disappeared, transformed into a bunch of rubble. »»
Today, humanitarian aid not in sufficient quantity in the north of Gaza, the situation of Al-Amarin has only deteriorated. While he regularly received humanitarian aid packages from Khan Younis, he has not received anything since his return to Gaza. “Many displaced people, like me, have returned with very few personal effects and have found nothing to eat, unless you can afford to buy food themselves,” he said to +972. “I don’t know when, or if, I will receive anything again. »»
Since the entry into force of the ceasefire on January 19, the UN reports that it has been able to transport aid and supplies throughout the Gaza Strip, including north of Netzarim. But officials admit that they are far from meeting the needs of more than 2 million Gazaouis, many of whom have suffered from famine in recent months and are currently faced with icy winter conditions and inadequate shelters.
The question of humanitarian aid also threatens to derail the ceasefire, Hamas accusing Israel of violating the agreement by preventing the entry of medical supplies, tents, fuel and building materials whose need is urgent, which even the Israeli officials and mediators have confirmed. Israel now seems to increase the number of aid trucks which he authorizes to enter Gaza, but while Israeli forces continue to attack the Palestinians and that American and Israeli leaders loud and clear their intention to move and clean Ethically the entire population of Gaza, it is not known how long the truce will still be able to hold.
“We have nowhere to go”
Like Al-Amarin, Sharifa Hassan, 35, was impatient to return to Gaza after a series of trying evacuations. Hassan and his family of four first fled their home in Tel Al-Hawa, a district west of the city of Gaza, on October 14, 2023, at the start of the Israeli land invasion.
“We did not want to leave our house until an Israeli artillery shell hit our roof in the middle of the night,” she said. “We fled to Al-Quds hospital under Israeli shots and stayed there for 30 days until the Israeli forces surround the hospital and force us, evacuated and patients, to move south . »»
Hassan was injured twice in Israeli air strikes during her trip to southern Gaza. His family had taken refuge in the Al-Turkmani residential building in Nuseirat, in the center of Gaza, when Israeli forces bombed him on October 18, 2024 without warning. Hassan remembers that three ambulances have arrived to take the wounded, but that Israeli quadricopters opened fire on them. “People have come out, my children and me, rubble,” she said. “We were lucky to get out of it with light injuries. »»
On January 25, they dismantled their tent in Az-Zawayda, a district of Deir al-Balah in the middle of the Gaza Strip, and recovered their belongings. The next morning at 9 a.m., they started the 13 -kilometer journey to the city of Gaza, which lasted 12 hours due to the crowd of other people who were also moving north.
“The trip was extremely exhausting, especially for my three children,” Hassan told +972. “We desperately needed water because we transported our things and waltz along the road damaged by Israeli bulldozers. »»
They were also shocked to see the catastrophic scale of destruction in the city of Gaza, including in their own district. “I no longer recognized my house or those of my neighbors; They had all collapsed on each other, “she said. “My children started to cry, because they imagined that they were finally going to be able to sleep in their own bed, in their room. My husband collapsed. I looked at him and I didn’t know what to do or where to go. »»
Hassan and his family went to settle in the partially destroyed house of his parents, in the Al-Karama district, north of the city of Gaza. However, they continue to suffer from a lack of drinking water and internet connection, due to the systematic bombing of Israel on most water sources in Gaza during its northern seat.
During the three weeks that have passed since Hassan’s return to Gaza, she did not receive a single aid package. “My brothers and sisters share with me all the food and clothes they have. Although there is affordable food on the markets, the inhabitants of Gaza do not have the money to buy it. She also fears that the slowness of the aid distribution process is not a consequence of the situation, but a deliberate maneuver of Israel aimed at forcing the Palestinians to leave the Gaza Strip. “I fear that Israel and the United States would manipulate the situation, delaying the reconstruction of Gaza so that we continue to suffer,” she told +972. “Their objective seems to be to push the inhabitants of Gaza towards a” voluntary migration “. »»
“I had the days before I could return”
Ahmed al-Zaim, 32, evacuated his house on rue Al-Nasr, in the west of the city of Gaza, during the first week of the Israeli assault on Gaza in October 2014. He rented a small Studio in the Az-Zawayda district. A few months later, a parent called him to tell him that his house had been seriously damaged during the land invasion of Israel.
“Losing my house was heartbreaking,” said Al-Zaim. “Each part of it contained memories. But I was grateful that my family and I don’t be there when the house was bombed. As long as we are alive, we can rebuild. »»
Before the war, Al-Zaim had a mobile phone store in Al-Nasr Street, but it was destroyed by an Israeli air strike in November 2003. When he was evacuated to the south, he took all his savings And food for a few days, thinking that war would soon be over.
“After the first month of evacuation, I spent all the money I had. I had to borrow money from my friends to buy food for my family, ”explains Al-Zaim. “I opened a stand for telephony accessories to earn a living. I counted the days until I could return to my district of the city of Gaza; It was like a dream. »»
Al-Zaim was one of the first to return to the North, but he left without his family: his 69-year-old father suffers from knee rheumatism and could not bear the march, and his wife, Marah, is pregnant three months of their second child. “I was afraid that this exhausting journey will affect his health and that of our future baby. »»
Al-Zaim returned to the North with the hope that he would remain at least a small part of his standing house so that his family could return there, a house he had built with his brothers for seven years. But the extent of the destruction destroyed him. “I am physically and mentally ill since the day I returned and when I saw my house destroyed,” he told +972. “I’m afraid that if we try to sleep here (in my house), the stones fall on our heads. »»
He has not yet informed his father of the extent of the damage. “I advised him to stay (in the south) until we can repair everything. I am afraid that if he comes and see that could affect his health, because he has heart problems. »»
In the meantime, Al-Zaim has returned to the same studio he rented in the south until reconstruction begins in the north. For the moment, he and his family have received no help and he is plagued by uncertainty as to the following events.
“The area where I lived in the city of Gaza is uninhabitable. Even if I want to install a tent on the rubble of my house, the nearest point to get water is two kilometers away, and there is no transport. I do not know what to do: take care of my pregnant wife, go get water and clean the rubble of my house, or work to earn money to bring food and medication to my father ” , he explained.
“Israel left us nothing in Gaza. The war may be finished, our sufferings only continue. »»
Ahmed Ahmed is the pseudonym of a journalist from the city of Gaza who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals.
Translation: JB for the media agency Palestine
Source: +972 Magazine
