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SvennoJ 1 day ago
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Over 500,000 Palestinians returned to north Gaza in 72 hours: Media Office

Gaza’s Government Media Office says more than half a million displaced Palestinians have returned to the northern governorates of Gaza via al-Rashid and Salah al-Din streets in the past 72 hours.

“This comes after 470 days of forced displacement since the start of the genocide committed by the Israeli occupation army in the Gaza Strip,” it said.

Our colleagues have reported from the ground earlier that some returnees are heading back to the centre of the enclave after finding no water, food, shelter or sanitation in the north.


Residents returning to unrecognisable Gaza City

Nader Shamalakh witnessed Israel’s initial bombardment of Gaza City more than 15 months ago. But nothing had prepared him for returning to a city that he no longer recognises.

“I swear that when I arrived here, I did not realise it,” Shamalakh told The Associated Press news agency on Tuesday, speaking of his return home after spending months forcibly displaced in southern Gaza.

More than 376,000 Palestinians have returned to the north of the territory since Monday, and Shamalakh is not alone in describing an inability to match memories of their homes with reality – a landscape decimated by Israel’s bombing where mounds of rubble are all that remain of entire neighbourhoods.


Buildings that were destroyed by the Israeli air and ground offensive are seen in the Tal al-Hawa neighbourhood of Gaza City on Tuesday

Civilians who made the journey successfully back to the north of the Gaza Strip are facing a drastic humanitarian reality. They have returned to assess the destruction left behind by the Israeli military operations in all border towns and villages – and what they have found is nothing but debris. They have expressed their deep concerns about the ability to reconstruct Gaza again, which will take years.

They are struggling to get access to water sources, while Gaza’s Government Media Office has reiterated many times that there are not enough shelters for families still expected to return to the north of the Strip. We are talking about hundreds of thousands of families.


An aerial view of the destruction in Beit Hanoon on January 28

Some people, meanwhile, have started to return to central Gaza, saying that they did not find any sort of life in the north and that it’s quite miserable and difficult for children and elderly people to cope with. In central areas of the Gaza Strip, they have at least the minimum level of essential services like access to food, water and even municipal services.

One year passes since Israeli tank killed Palestinian girl Hind Rajab in Gaza City

Today marks a year since an Israeli tank fired from a close distance at the family car of six-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab, and a tank shell directly hit the ambulance that was dispatched to help.

“We carry her name with pain, hope and an unyielding determination to seek justice – for her and for all the victims of the Gaza genocide,” said the Hind Rajab Foundation on X, marking the grim anniversary.

“Hind will never be forgotten,” the charity organisation pledged.



Gaza hospitals received 63 bodies in past 24 hours: Ministry

Israel has killed two Palestinians in the past 24 hours across Gaza, while two others succumbed to their wounds and 59 bodies of people killed in previous Israeli attacks have been recovered from the rubble, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry.

The new numbers have raised the total death toll in Israel’s war on Gaza to 47,417, the statement published on Telegram said. At least 111,571 Palestinians have also been injured in Gaza since October 7, 2023, the ministry added.