The exhausted Palestinians arrive in the city of Gaza in without homes, killed families | Israel-Palestine News of Conflict

Al-Rashid Street, the city of Gaza, Palestine- There are many stories among the tens of thousands of people walking on Al-Rashid Street in Gaza, moving north.

In the crowd is a man with a white beard walking with a determination next to his family. In one hand it wears a blanket and a few weak possessions. In the second, he holds on to his adult son, who has Down syndrome.

Rifaat Jouda does not pretend he is not tired. The trip started in the morning in southern Gaza, in al-Mawasi Khan Younis, where his family had been displaced for 15 months during the Israeli war in Gaza.

The goal was to get to the city of Gaza, the journey finally possible because Israel allowed Palestinians in southern Gazi comic travel north on MondayAfter a Aid began on January 19.

But there is a long walk – about 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) along the coastal road – and Rifaat’s family was forced to stop resting every hour.

“The trip was exhausting and very difficult,” Rifaat tells Al Jazeera after he finally reached the city of Gaza. “Nevertheless, we were determined to come back.”

Rifaat is not sure of his plan now that he is back home. His physical home, in N

“They [Rifaat’s contacts in Gaza City] Let’s say the situation is very difficult, without water, services and widespread destruction, “says Rifaat.” But what is the difference? We go from a difficult situation to even harder. [making the journey to return] Back, he raised our spirit and renewed hope. “

Regret for shifts

Before the war began 15 months ago, the majority of Gaza population lived in the north, focused on the largest city area of ​​the enclave, the city of Gaza. But there also focused his attacks and issued orders about forced evacuation early in the war, saying to people to escape to the “safe zone” in the central and southern Gaza.

This led to most Gaza, approximately 2.3 million inhabitants displaced in these central and southern areas, under the corridor carved from the central gauze that Israel called Netzarim.

Although the destruction was predominantly in the north – approximately 74 percent of Gaza City buildings were damaged or destroyed in the war – the alleged safe zones were not spared, and the areas that fled were also devastated – 50 percent of buildings in central Gaza Deir el -Balah was damaged or destroyed, while in southern Gazi there were 55 percent of the buildings in Khan Younis and 48 percent of the Rafah buildings.

Permanent Israeli attacks – who killed at least 47,300 during the war – forced Palestine to escape from place to place and felt many that they never allowed to leave the city of Gaza and North.

“Shoulder days were the hardest and most handsome,” Rifaat says. “We cannot imagine that we continue our lives as displaced people away from our homes.”

“Anyone who sees these crowds understand it well No plans for forcible displacement will succeedNo matter what is happening, “he adds, before suggesting that he can even return to Ashdod – the city, north of Gaza, but now in Israel – from which his family was forcibly displaced in 1948 during what Palestinians call Nakba, or “disaster”, with the creation of Israel.

Moving is a central motive for Palestine – because of Nakba from 1948, when at least 750,000 Palestinians were forced from their homes. Many people in Gaza are refugees, their families originally from cities and villages are now part of Israel. And so, especially after experience during the current war in Gaza, many regret that they have ever left their homes in the north.

Al-Dabbagh Sami, a 39-year-old who headed back to Sheikh Radwan in northern Gaza, explains that he was displaced in several different areas before settling in Central Gaza. Four father, after walking on foot for hours, says he will never go wrong.

“We will never repeat the experience of displacement, no matter what is happening,” Al-Dabbagh says.

It is a feeling shared by another man traveling to the northern Gaza, Radwan al-Ajoul.

“Moving has taught us not to leave our homes again,” he says as he carries his things on his shoulder.

The 45-year-old father of eight years has lived in Deir El-Balah, but like Al-Dabbagh, he is also from Sheika Radwan.

“The feeling of return is indescribable, especially since the conditions are no different between the north and the south,” he says.

Return without family members

Talks on Al-Rashid Street are passing-people who walk here for hours, trying to monitor their family members, helping those weaker than them and wearing several things they managed to keep after more than a year of war and displacement.

But divided details reveal the loss that the Palestinians in Gaza had to withstand.

Khaled Ibrahim, 52, came from Khan Younis and headed to Beit Lahiya, north of the city of Gaza.

His family – has four children – they have no home to return to. Instead, he plans to set a tent.

But more than home, he lost those closest to him; Ibrahim’s wife, granddaughter and two of his brothers were killed in a bombing near their tent at Khan Younis last June.

“Our lives are difficult. We lost everything in every way,” Ibrahim says.

Another returnee, Nada Jahjoh, also lost his family. One of her sons was killed during the great March of Gaza – 2018, before the war. The other was killed in May during the Israeli attack. He now has one son and a granddaughter – whom he wears as he walks.

“We are exhausted, physically and mentally,” says Jahjoh. “I feel a very sad return without my sons. My joy is incomplete. “