Palestinians celebrate return to north Gaza
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have made their return to northern Gaza after Israel lifted its closure of the devastated north for the first time since the first weeks of the war with Hamas, Asharq Al-Awsat reported on January 28th.
The United Nations has said that more than 200,000 people were seen moving to the north on the morning of January 27th.
Cheerful crowds of Palestinians, some of them holding babies or pushing wheelchairs, walked on a seaside road all day and night as Israeli tanks watched over on a hill nearby. Hamas has called the return “a victory for our people.”
After 15 months of war on the besieged enclave, displaced Palestinians who have been sheltering in tents and schools are keen to return to their homes, even though many homes been reduced to rubble.
A mother of three, Yasmin Abu Amshah, has said that she walked six kilometres to get to her damaged but habitable home in Gaza city.
Amshah said: “It was a long trip, but a happy one.”
Ismail Abu Mattar, a father of four who waited for days near the crossing point for north Gaza, described scenes of celebration, in which people sang, prayed and cried.
“It’s the joy of return . . . we had thought we wouldn’t return, like our ancestors.” Abu Mattar said, in reference to 1948, during which Palestinians either fled or were driven out of what is now modern-day Israel.
The opening to the north was delayed for two days after Israel had claimed that Hamas altered the order of the hostages it freed in return for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
Local medical officials said that Israeli forces opened fire on a crowd waiting at the northern crossing, killing several Palestinians over the weekend. Israel’s military said it fired warning shots at approaching groups it thought were a threat.
Palestinians were crossing on foot through an area of the Netzarim corridor, a military zone just south of Gaza City that Israel established early in the war.
A checkpoint for vehicles, opened later on Gaza’s main north-south highway, where a line of traffic stretched across around three kilometres.
Israel had held back the crossing’s opening, which was supposed to take place over the weekend, saying it would not let Palestinians to enter the north until a civilian hostage, Arbel Yehoud, was freed. Israel said she should have been freed before four female soldiers who were freed on January 25th.
Asharq Al-Awsat
