Just before the war between the Palestinian group Hamas and Israel, Gazan Nagy Ahmed, 30, He was stranded in the Egyptian city of Al Arish where he went for a medical check-up. “Today, at last, he can return to a destroyed Gaza where he will be reunited with his family and his “homeland.”
“We are here as if we were in cages. We are going crazy, but thank God, the time has come to be able to return to our homeland,” he told Efe from the Rafah crossing, which connects Egypt with the Palestinian enclave, while he prepares to enter Gaza.
It is the first time since the start of the war on October 7 that Palestinians can return to Gaza after Egypt gives the green light coinciding with the first day of the temporary humanitarian truce in the Strip.
(Also read: Live | Truce between Israel and Hamas: first aid trucks begin to arrive).
Not only those who are in Egypt return. This Friday, thousands of families of displaced Palestinians, with their few belongings in tow, filled the roads of the southern Gaza Strip to return to their homes, taking advantage of the beginning of the four-day truce.
The roar of war was changed by the horns of cars and the sirens of ambulances trying to make their way through the crowds of displaced people leaving the hospitals, where they had taken refuge.
For the past seven weeks, Israeli bombings have devastated the Palestinian enclave.
These attacks have forced the displacement of 1.7 million of its 2.4 million inhabitants, according to the UN.With more than half of the buildings damaged or destroyed, according to UN figures, returning Gazans are not sure they will find their homes.
Even so, Thousands of men, women and children walk, or ride in cars or other precarious transportation, with their boxes, plastic bags and small luggage.
Leaflets dropped by Israeli planes warn, however, that “the war is not over.”
The Israeli army considers the northern third of the territory, where Gaza City is located, to be a combat zone and orders all civilians to leave the sector. “Returning to the north is prohibited and very dangerous,” the brochures add.
Gazans in Egypt will be able to return
Nagy Ahmed comes from the Jabalia camp in northern Gaza, a place that has been bombed several times by Israel in the series of indiscriminate attacks that the Jewish State has carried out in retaliation for the brutal action of Hamas against Israeli territory.
“I was told today that you can enter Gaza. I am here suffering twice as much because our families are inside Gaza and under bombardment. And we are here, and our hearts and thoughts are there with them in Gaza,” he said.
On Thursday, the Palestinian Embassy in Cairo announced the possibility of the return of Palestinian citizens stranded in northern Sinai, and who wish to return voluntarily to the Gaza Strip, while those who remain stranded in Cairo and the rest of the Egyptian provinces will be able to do so starting Saturday.
The director of the State Information Service, Diaa Rashwan, who acts as spokesperson for the Egyptian Government, confirmed this Friday in a statement that “For the first time since the beginning of the aggression, the Egyptian side will allow Palestinians stranded in the country to enter the Gaza Strip at their will.”
(Keep reading: They announce a list of 39 Palestinians that Israel will release in exchange for hostages).
The number of Palestinians returning to Gaza on the first day of the truce between Hamas and Israel that came into effect at 07:00 local time is unknown so far.
Abeer al Yamal, a Palestinian activist living in Jordan, boarded the first flight she could to Egypt when the war began and has remained since then in Al Arish, the capital of northern Sinai located in eastern Egypt and near the Rafah crossing, waiting to enter Gaza.
“I am here now and I hope to be able to enter and help them inside,” he assured Efe, adding that during this time waiting began an initiative to support the wounded and their companions crossing from Gaza to hospitals in Egypt.
“I am very happy with the truce because it will give a little space so that people can breathe a little and an opportunity to deliver aid. You already know how the situation is there, there is a lack of food, water and medicine, in addition to the fuel necessary to hospitals to be able to help the wounded,” said Al Yamal, 35, adding that he is hopeful there will be another truce.
(We recommend: War between Israel and Hamas: the world, pending truce in Gaza and hostage exchange).
The ceasefire, which will last four days and could be extended to ten if Hamas hands over more kidnapped people, will also serve for the entry of humanitarian aid to the enclave, which has already begun to enter Gaza. According to the Egyptian Government, 130,000 liters of fuel and four trucks of gas are expected to enter daily, as well as 200 trucks of humanitarian aid.
EFE and AFP
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