Palestinians celebrate return to northern Gaza after 15 months of war - A Story of Resilience and Hope
WADI GAZA, Gaza Strip — Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians streamed into Gaza’s most heavily destroyed area on Monday after Israel opened the north for the first time since the early weeks of the war with Hamas, a dramatic reversal of their exodus 15 months ago.
As a fragile ceasefire held into a second week, Israel was told by Hamas that eight of the hostages to be freed during the deal’s first phase are dead.
The Joyous Return of Palestinians
Joyous crowds of Palestinians, some holding babies or pushing wheelchairs, walked along a seaside road all day and into the night, carrying bedrolls, bottles of water and other belongings. Armed and masked Hamas fighters flashed a victory sign. The crowd was watched over by Israeli tanks on a nearby hill.
The United Nations said over 200,000 people were observed moving north on Monday morning.
Palestinians who have been sheltering in squalid tent camps and former schools are eager to return to their homes — even though they are likely damaged or destroyed. Many had feared that Israel would make their displacement permanent.
Ismail Abu Mattar, a father of four who waited for days near the crossing point for northern Gaza, described scenes of jubilation, with people singing, praying and crying.
“It’s the joy of return,” said Abu Mattar, whose relatives were among the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled or were driven out of what is now Israel during the 1948 war surrounding its creation. “We had thought we wouldn’t return, like our ancestors.”
Stories of Reunion and Resilience
Yasmin Abu Amshah, a mother of three, said she walked 6 kilometers (nearly 4 miles) to reach her damaged but habitable Gaza City home. She saw her younger sister for the first time in over a year.
“It was a long trip, but a happy one,” she said.
Many saw their return as an act of steadfastness after Israel’s military campaign, which was launched in response to the Hamas militant group’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel. The return was also seen as a repudiation of U.S. President Donald Trump’s suggestion that many Palestinians be resettled in Egypt and Jordan. Both countries rejected the idea.
A Message of Hope and Rebuilding
Whether hostages are still alive inside Gaza has been a heartbreaking question for waiting families who have pushed Israel’s government to reach a deal to free them, fearing that time was running out.
Before Monday’s announcement, Israel believed that at least 35 of the about 90 hostages taken in the Oct. 7 attack and still in Gaza were dead.
Government spokesman David Mencer told journalists that a list received overnight from Hamas on the status of the 33 hostages being freed under the ceasefire’s first phase showed eight were dead.
The families have been informed, he said, adding that the information matched what Israeli intelligence had believed.
The ceasefire is aimed at winding down the deadliest and most destructive war ever fought between Israel and Hamas. Militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the Oct. 7 assault and abducted another 250.
Israel responded with an air and ground war that has killed over 47,000 Palestinians, over half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. It does not say how many of the dead were combatants. Israel says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
In all, around 90% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been displaced, and they face new health risks as they return.
