The Electronic Intifada 26 February 2025
Saleem Abu Afash constructs a shelter for his family in Yarmouk stadium.
When a ceasefire was announced in January, hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians, who could finally return to their homes and areas in northern Gaza, celebrated.
But many have since had to temper their joy as they faced the reality of what little Israel’s genocidal aggression in the north had left standing.
Ahmad al-Ayyoubi, a father of three from Shujaiya, east of Gaza City, had been forced to move to a displacement camp in the Mawasi area of Khan Younis.
“It was truly like the night of Eid,” al-Ayyoubi said. “We were despairing, thinking that this war would never end. Now I am relieved that the bloodshed has finally stopped.”
He was not put off by reports of the massive destruction, destruction that has seen many go north only to return because they had nowhere to stay.
“We started our preparations to return with relish and determination,” al-Ayyoubi told The Electronic Intifada. “We had been counting the minutes to return to our beloved Shujaiya despite the loss of our home, to reunite with our friends and family there.”
According to Gaza’s government media office, half a million displaced people had moved back to northern Gaza by 30 January.
Prolonged agony
Nothing about returning north has been smooth, however.
On 26 January, tens of thousands of Palestinians continued gathering at the closest point to the northern Gaza Strip, Tabbat al-Nuwairi area in northern Nuseirat, waiting for Israel to withdraw troops and open the checkpoints separating the south from the north after the second round of prisoner exchanges.
In violation of the ceasefire agreement, however, Israel delayed the troop withdrawal, leaving tens of thousands of displaced people shivering in the cold in the street, without food or shelter.
The Israeli army also repeatedly opened fire on those waiting to return, injuring several people. Indeed, despite the ceasefire, Israel has killed more than 130 people in Gaza since the agreement came into force on 19 January.
Muhammad al-Majdoub, 56, and his family of 16, were among the crowds waiting to return in late January. The family was displaced at the beginning of the war and their home was destroyed in the repeated Israeli attacks on northern Gaza, but they were determined to return, even if to “set up a tent next to the rubble of our house,” as al-Majdoub put it.
Muhammad al-Majdoub sits waiting with his family at Netzarim before being able to move back north.
Instead, they found themselves stuck in the cold.
“We were supposed to be on our way to northern Gaza. Instead, we found ourselves sitting on the sand as the sun set, with no food or shelter,” he said.
Mixed feelings
Eventually, the Israeli army did open the checkpoints, allowing people to move home.
Al-Ayyoubi and his family have returned with mixed feelings.
“I was shocked to see the huge scale of destruction. It is worse than what I ever imagined,” al-Ayyoubi said.
The first thing he did before he even returned to the rubble of his home was visit his mother’s grave.
“I visited my mom in the cemetery. I prayed and made duaa [supplication] for her and then left for our neighborhood,” he said.
For Saleem Abu Afash, 44, reuniting with his parents in Gaza City was the best reward.
“Breathing Gaza’s air is different. My mom and dad were waiting for me. We hugged for a long time. I missed them too much. I hope we will never be separated again,” he said.
Abu Afash was displaced from the Al-Daraj quarter of the Old City in Gaza during the first week of the war.
Returning has been hard. He, his wife and their seven children have no tent to stay in, and with Israel still preventing mobile shelters and tents from entering in significant numbers, they have little hope of securing one in the near future.
Instead, they’ve had to make do with simple materials like cloth, nylon and some wood to build a shelter inside Yarmouk Stadium in the center of Gaza City – a place the Israeli military had used as a detention and torture camp in late 2023.
Harsh reality
Al-Ayyoubi has also not found the respite he had hoped for when he finally reached Shujaiya.
“The street where my house used to be has been leveled to the ground. I couldn’t even recognize it. I had no words for my three children. They thought they were coming home. But it was a wasteland in the end,” he said.
He also could not find a tent to shelter his family, and he, his wife and children now stay with their grandmother in a very crowded shelter at a school in the Tufah quarter of Gaza’s Old City.
Omar Salah, 26, was a little luckier. He was relieved to see that his house in Gaza City, while damaged, was still standing and recognizable.
“My house is only partially damaged and not utterly destroyed. But I feel sorry for my city,” said Salah, a teaching assistant at University College of Applied Sciences, which Israel destroyed on 19 October 2023.
The house will require tremendous effort to be renovated, he said, and with Israel preventing heavy machinery and construction materials like cement from entering, the family of six is unable to do much by way of repair.
Moreover, the food and water situation remains precarious and they face serious challenges merely providing for their basic needs.
“Access to water and power is extremely limited here. I have to walk for a kilometer to supply my home with a bucket of water,” Salah told The Electronic Intifada. “Just charging my cellphone is a daily challenge.”
Abdallah al-Naami is a journalist and photographer living in Gaza.
