200,000 Palestinians return to north Gaza as Israeli troops withdraw

Around 200,000 Palestinians have returned to the north of Gaza as ceasefire takes effect, civil defence agency in the besieged enclave said.

"Approximately 200,000 people returned to northern Gaza today," said Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for the agency, a rescue force operating in Gaza.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians began flocking towards north Gaza after a ceasefire took effect on Friday, anxious to see what remained of their shattered homes and wary of further hardships that lay ahead.

Almost all of Gaza’s 2.2 million population has been displaced by the Israeli genocidal war, which erupted in October 2023 after a cross-border attack by Hamas on Israeli settlements and military installations.

The subsequent Israeli invasion killed over 67,000 people, reduced much of Gaza to vast tracts of rubble and wrought a humanitarian disaster.

The Israeli military said the truce deal came into effect at 12 pm local time (0900 GMT) on Friday. The announcement set off a multitude of Palestinians walking along Gaza's coastal road towards former homes in the widely devastated north as Israeli soldiers pulled out.

Celebrations tempered by the wasteland

Despite the widespread celebrations that greeted news of the ceasefire, many Palestinians were keenly aware that little remained of the lives they knew before the war.

"Okay, it is over – then what? There is no home I can go back to," Balqees, a mother of five from Gaza City who has been sheltering in Deir al Balah in central Gaza, told Reuters.

"They have destroyed everything. Tens of thousands of people are dead, Gaza is in ruins, and they made a ceasefire. Am I supposed to be happy? No, I am not.”

Some former Gaza City residents had already started making their way back even before the ceasefire went into effect, some making it as far as the northwest suburb of Sheikh Radwan.

‘Sea of rubble’

Among them was Ismail Zayda, a 40-year-old father of three, who went to check on his house on Friday morning and was amazed to find it still intact – albeit amid a "sea of rubble".

"Thank God, my house is still standing," he told Reuters in a voice note. "But the area is destroyed, my neighbours’ houses are destroyed – entire districts are gone."

Israeli armoured vehicles and bulldozers started leaving Gaza on Thursday.

The Israeli military said in a statement that troops were "adjusting operational positions" inside Gaza.

For some Palestinians in Gaza, the prospect of returning even to the remnants of their former houses was enough.

"Of course, there are no homes – they've been destroyed – but we are happy just to return to where our homes were, even over the rubble," Mahdi Saqla, 40, said as he stood by a makeshift tent in central Gaza.

"That, too, is a great joy."

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Source: TRT