Long-Awaited Hopes: Displaced Palestinians Eager to Return Home

“What is the first thing you will do when you return to your home?” This question has been widely shared among displaced Palestinians in Gaza after the announcement that the ceasefire will take effect on Sunday.
The responses have varied, with some expressing hope and joy, while others reflect sadness and a sense of loss.
“I want to go quickly to the place where I lived my last days with my husband and children. I will search for them and look for anything related to them, from their smell to their belongings. I will search for their pure bodies, bid them farewell, and bury them with my own hands, even if I have to gather their bones piece by piece.. After all this exhaustion, loss, deprivation, and suffering, O Lord, make it easier for us, please,” Raja’a Akram wrote on Facebook.
“Menna Mohamed also wrote: “I will visit the cemetery to see the graves of my daughter, sister, and mother, and I will talk to them. I miss them a lot. Oh Allah, give me patience.”
“My daughters, Lamar and Yaqin, told me, ‘As soon as we get back, Mom, let’s go to the cemetery and visit Dad’s grave,’” Nedaa Abo Dan wrote.
According to the Ministry of Health in Gaza, over 46,890 people have been killed since the beginning of the Israeli offensive in October 2023, with 70 percent of the victims being women and children.
However, The Lancet estimates that the death toll in Gaza during the first nine months of Israel’s assault was about 40% higher than the numbers reported by the Health Ministry.
The study estimates that between 7 October 2023 and 30 June 2024, between 55,298 and 78,525 Palestinians died from “traumatic injuries”.
By 30 June, the ministry had reported a death toll of 37,877. The study’s best estimate puts the number of deaths at 64,260 by that date, representing nearly 3 percent of Gaza’s pre-war population. It also found that 59 percent of those killed were women, children and elderly people.
For Entisar Ashour, a displaced young woman from Tal al-Hawa in Gaza City, the first thing she wants to do is visit her family’s home, her room, and the belongings she had to leave behind when forced to flee.
“I want to breathe in the scent of our house, the land, the air. I miss everything there,” she said. “We know the area was destroyed, but this is our land, the place we love and belong to.”
“The first thing my husband and I will do is return to our home in Jabalia camp. We spent our entire lives working hard to earn money and build it,” Om Ali said, recalling the “memories and beautiful days” she and her family shared in their home.
“We will set up a tent on the rubble of the house,” she added.
Gaza’s Government Media Office estimated that 161,600 residential units have been completely destroyed since the start of the assault. The Jabalia refugee camp has now become a “ghost town,” with 70 percent of its buildings reduced to rubble, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
According to the UN, clearing the Gaza Strip of the rubble caused by Israel’s war on the Palestinian enclave will take 15 years. The cleanup would require the removal of 40 million tonnes of rubble.
Rania Abu Sada, an academic at Al-Aqsa University, expressed her determination to continue teaching online, saying, “We will build our universities. We will rebuild Gaza.” She added, “The war is incredibly exhausting. We were on the brink of losing our ambition, the students’ dreams of the future… but this must continue. No one should give up.”
The Gaza Government Media Office reported that 136 universities were completely destroyed during the war, while 355 others were partially damaged. As a result, 785,000 students have been deprived of education over the past 15 months, and 12,794 lives have been lost. Even academics have not been spared, with 149 teachers killed in the war.