Heartbreak and lost dreams await Palestinians in north Gaza

When the displaced Palestinians returned to the north of the Gaza Strip, their hearts carried fragile hopes of finding fragments of the lives they were forced to leave behind due to Israel’s genocidal war. 

Instead, they were met with devastation far beyond their darkest fears. The alleys choked with rubble, and homes once brimming with warmth and memories, now reduced to cold, lifeless stones.

Palestinians returned after the Israeli occupation resolved the issue regarding Israeli captive Arabel Yehuda with Hamas as part of the ceasefire agreement, which ended weeks of tense negotiations, which offered a some relief to many who had been forcibly displaced. 

According to the Hamas-run media government, at least 300,000 people have so far returned to their homes in north Gaza.

Landscape of despair

A landscape of despair awaited those who returned. The acrid smell of gunpowder still lingers in the air.  The faces of the Palestinians present stories of anguish and disbelief, their weary steps sinking into a ground that seems to mourn with them.

Once he arrived in his area, Rani Al-Araj, a Palestinian man from the Zeitoun neighbourhood in Gaza City, stood motionless in front of the ruins of his house. His eyes searched for something familiar, but all he found were crumbled walls and faint traces of his children’s drawings, cloaked in dust.

“This place was our home […] My children’s room was here. And here, my wife used to cook for us. Everything we had had gone; our memories, lives and everything,” he said to The New Arab.  “During my 15-month-old displacement, I kept convincing myself I would find something to shelter us. But I found nothing. Just regret, helplessness, and pain I cannot describe.” 

Nightfall came quickly and with no shelter, Rani put some of his blankets in the alley, where his children slept under the open air.

“When we came back, we found no water, no food, no basic services, not even someone to listen to our cries for help. We’re lost, abandoned in a void,” he added. 

The scene was no less harrowing in Beit Lahia town, north of Gaza. Families trudged through a city stripped of its identity, where rubble from homes blended so seamlessly with destroyed streets and the land was practically unrecognisable. 

Women carried their children as they searched for anything to salvage and anchor to the lives they once knew: whether a dusty blanket, a cracked pot, or a photograph.

Hadeel Al-Attar, a Palestinian woman who returned to Beit Lahia, stood amidst the wreckage, overwhelmed. “I don’t know where to begin or where to go,” the 39-year-old mother of three remarked to TNA. 

“Even the schools were bombed. In the south, we barely survived the relentless bombardment and soaring prices. We came back hoping for relief, but there was nothing there, no life, no hope. No one even comes to see us, let alone help us,” she added. 

Nearby, her young son Kinan stood silent, staring at what used to be his school, now a mound of rubble. In a barely audible voice, he asked, “Where will I study now? What will become of my dreams?”

The struggle to survive

For those who returned, survival has become an unrelenting struggle. Among the long lines for water that stretch endlessly, Abu Khaled waits to fill a single gallon. “Our greatest challenge is water,” he said to TNA. “With the destruction of pipelines, we rely on emergency trucks or overpriced markets, but it’s never enough.”

Homeless families huddle under tattered tents or thin blankets that offer little protection from the biting cold. On frigid nights, they burn scraps of wood to stay warm. 

“We had a terrifying night as my children were forced to sleep in the open air,” Umm Ahmed, from the al-Rimal neighbourhood in central Gaza City, said to TNA. 

“All the time, I am forced to fight the cold, the hunger and the fear, but I cannot win. My children shiver, and I have nothing to give them. No clothes, no warmth, no hope,” she added. 

Despite the layers of cruelty and sorrow, resilience emerges. Neighbours band together, clearing rubble with bare hands, and children try to find joy by playing with broken fragments of toys. 

“We will not give up. We will rebuild everything, even if we have to do it stone by stone. This is our land, and we will never abandon it,” said one child. 

Hosni Mahna, the Gaza Municipality’s public relations official, told TNA that welcoming displaced residents presents enormous challenges.

“We have worked tirelessly to restore some water wells and repair critical lines, but the damage is overwhelming,” he said, noting that there plans are underway to rehabilitate key areas once Israel allows access, but the sheer scope of devastation by Israel makes progress agonisingly slow.

Mahna called on international organisations to urgently intervene, stressing that without external support, the suffering of Gaza‘s people will deepen as the weather and environment will no doubt further exacerbate their plight.