UN expert says Palestinian returnees face ‘profound trauma’
Balakrishnan Rajagopal, the UN special rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, says Israel must allow tents and caravans to be immediately delivered to Gaza, as displaced Palestinians returning to the north of the bombarded territory have found their homes and neighbourhoods destroyed.
“The psychological impacts and trauma are profound, and that’s what we are seeing right now as people are returning to northern Gaza,” he told Al Jazeera.
The UN estimated that 92 percent of all residential buildings in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed since the war began, and hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians have been forced to live in tents and other makeshift shelters.
Standing in front of the ruins of his house in Gaza City, Mahmoud Abo Emeira was devastated at the scale of the destruction and suffering.
‘We’ve lost everything. We need everything’
Reem Zidiah, a displaced Palestinian woman, says she “found nothing” after returning to Gaza City.
“The city is rubble, destruction,” she told Al Jazeera. “Everything is destroyed.”
Zidiah said returnees are feeling “so lost” and helpless. “People are walking in the street and asking themselves, ‘What happened to us?'” she added. “We don’t know what to do.”
“You are talking to a person who lived two years in a genocide. We’ve lost everything. We need everything.”
‘We’ll continue to live in the middle, between life and death, for a long time’
Hussein Karsoua, a displaced Palestinian journalist, says he was “in shock” when he encountered his largely destroyed house upon his return to Gaza City.
“There are no windows, no doors,” he told Al Jazeera. “There’s nothing.”
Karsoua said Palestinian families will continue to suffer, predicting that the rebuilding of the Strip will take a long time.
“It will not be soon,” he said. “This means that we will continue to live in the middle, between life and death, for a long time,” he added.
“I have children; they want to go to school. Maybe there will be rebuilding, there will be schools with tents and caravans, but it will not be soon – I know that, I am sure.”
