2023-11-25 00:44:57
Palestinian Asma Ahmed did not sleep all night waiting for the dawn of Friday, the first day of the temporary truce between Hamas and Israel in the Gaza Strip, so that she could return to the town of Khuza’a, from which she was displaced during the first days of the war, in the hope of inspecting her home and spending the four days of calm in Calm instead of the suffering and hardships of displacement in all the details of daily life, according to a report prepared by the Arab World News Agency.
Just before seven o’clock in the morning, the time set for the start of the truce, she left the shelter to which she had been displaced, and headed towards the town on a donkey-drawn cart. Then she completed another part of the road in a taxi, and was forced to complete most of the journey on foot, while she was in a state of eagerness and longing for the home she was waiting for. She deprived her children of what they desired to build.
Palestinians return to the Khuza’a area on the eastern outskirts of the city of Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, to inspect their homes after weeks of Israeli bombing, as a 4-day ceasefire entered into force (AFP)
However, her shock came with the first moments of entering the neighborhood in which she lived. The streets were destroyed, the houses collapsed, rubble spread on every side, and large holes restricted movement, in a horrific scene in which Asmaa did not recognize the location of her house had it not been for the presence of some prominent signs on the collapsed walls. And scattered furniture.
She knelt down and started crying, while some of her children tried to comfort her and embrace her, muttering some words that recalled situations in the family’s life at home before the war. However, the mother pointed with her hand towards the rubble of her house, then slapped her hand with her hand, and signs of shock and astonishment took over her.
Asmaa, the mother of six children, says, “It is a sad and painful calm for us. Instead of spending these days in my home to breathe a little from the hardships of the days of displacement and harsh war, our sorrows increased after the loss of the home in which we had spent all our lives.”
She added: “But this devastation is lighter than the calamity of losing children and loved ones.” Praise be to God, I will spend these days among the rubble and will not return to the humiliation of displacement as long as the calm continues.”
With the first hours of the truce entering into force, large numbers of displaced people headed towards the areas from which they had been displaced, in an attempt to spend the days of calm in their homes, hoping to partially escape the torment of displacement that was accompanied by deprivation of the minimum necessities of life, while the displaced from the city were not allowed to… Gaza and its north to the south of the Strip, returning to the north according to the agreement.
Palestinians fleeing the north along the Salah al-Din Road help an injured man with a bandage as he walks in front of an Israeli army tank in the Zeitoun area on the southern outskirts of Gaza City on November 24, 2023, after a four-day ceasefire that began early in the morning (A. F.B.)
Scenes of shock when returning to the areas from which Palestinians were displaced in the Gaza Strip are repeated for many, especially those whose homes, property, and residential neighborhoods were destroyed, but they insist on reaching them in the hope that they will feel a little comfort next to the homes, even if they were destroyed, in light of the amount of suffering they endured during the period. Displacement, as is the case with Iyad Al-Najjar, who insisted on coming with his family and spending days of calm within the walls of the crumbling house.
The man searches with his 8-year-old son, Malik, for his toys, notebooks, and some of his drawings that he left behind. He fled the bombing two days after the outbreak of war, but it seemed that it was buried under the rubble, like the rest of the clothes and other supplies that he had hoped to find to help alleviate his family’s needs in these difficult situations.
Palestinian homes in the eastern Khuza’a region were destroyed and rubble spread on all sides (AFP)
He speaks with great sadness and anger about the loss of years of effort to build a house in a matter of moments as a result of the Israeli bombing. Instead of waiting for calm to take a little rest and live in peace and quiet, the truce was a symbol of shock and sadness, as he said.
Iyad says: “The truce revealed to us the catastrophe of destruction of our areas and homes. Instead of waiting for the end of the war and displacement to return to our normal lives, we will face a long journey of displacement and displacement whose end we do not know after the destruction of our homes.”
He asked: “What is the meaning of calm when our homes have been destroyed?” How will we feel calm while we are still in displacement?
Like Eid days
If this was the case with their homes destroyed, others breathed a sigh of relief once they returned to their homes, which were still habitable despite being damaged by the bombing, and they began arranging their conditions to spend the days of calm inside them, away from the shelter centers and the deprivation they experienced inside them of most of their needs.
Despite the state of exhaustion that appears on Majdi Al-Sumairi, as he carries his young son on his shoulder and walks with his wife and the rest of his children, heading to their home in the town of Al-Qarara, north of Khan Yunis, he describes the first hours of the calm as being like the days of Eid, as the displaced people crowded back to their areas of residence.
A Palestinian walks over the rubble to reach Khan Yunis to inspect his house after weeks of Israeli bombing in the Khuza’a area on the eastern outskirts of the city of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip (AFP)
Magdy, who was displaced to a shelter center since the first day of the war, says: “All the suffering we experienced during the days of displacement will partially disappear, God willing, as we spend the days of calm in our home with our family and among our neighbors.”
He confirms that everyone is in a state of satisfaction and relief, and prays to God to extend the truce and end the war. “We only want calm and tranquility away from the wars and their bitterness that we have experienced at every moment during the past days.”
However, the conditions of the truce did not differ much for the family of Abu Samer Diya (52 years old), who was displaced from Beit Lahia in the north of the Gaza Strip to its south, because they were deprived of returning to their home, where they had hoped to spend the days of the truce, and a temporary salvation from the journey of displacement during which they moved between… Shelter centers, until she ended up living in a small store in Khan Yunis.
While Abu Samer considers that the truce will not change the reality of his family’s life at all as long as he is in a state of displacement and does not return to his home in the northern Gaza Strip, he does not underestimate the importance of calm and stopping the bombing, killing and destruction, as this enables the people of Gaza to move around safely and provide for some of their needs compared to the past days. Cruel war.
He says: “The introduction of aid, fuel, and medicine is also important, as this will alleviate the dire need for food supplies for the displaced and residents, which makes extending the calm a demand for everyone.” It is expected that the markets will witness an abundance, albeit limited, of some basic commodities that are expected to be distributed to the population by international institutions.
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