Israeli army opens fire on thousands attempting to return home to north Gaza
Displaced Palestinians attempt to make their way back to northern Gaza to their homes, Central Gaza, 14 April 2024
Tareq S. Hajjaj reports in Mondoweiss on 15 April 2024:
On Sunday, April 14, the morning light saw thousands of families leaving southern Gaza and flooding the central Gaza Strip, moving through the areas of Deir al-Balah and the Nuseirat refugee camp with the intention of making their way further north. They were going home.
On their backs they carried what remained of their belongings, moving in several waves along Gaza’s coastal road. In the middle of the street standing among the crowd is a young man, Muhammad Sakher, 21. He screams on camera, shouting about how he has been suffocated by displacement and war, and how all that he wants is to go back to his home in northern Gaza. “Is there anyone who can feel us? Can anyone have mercy on us and help us?” he tells Mondoweiss with indignation. “We just want to go back to our homes. We are civilians, we have nothing to do with the fighting.”
The crowds around him move on, making the slow march with a mix of trepidation and hopefulness. But just before they begin to approach the Israeli checkpoint on al-Rashid Street in western Gaza, the bullets start to fly, followed by tank shells and bombs dropped by drones.
Earlier in the day, dozens of families had confirmed to their relatives in the south by phone that they were able to cross back into northern Gaza and return to their old neighborhoods. News of the successful first wave of return spread rapidly among the displaced families, and they immediately packed up and made their way northward. Shortly after, those same crowds would run back in the direction they had come from, bullets flying over their heads.
‘We want to go back, even if our homes are piles of rubble‘
The Israeli army had earlier called specific families in the central Gaza region and ordered them to head back north on Sunday morning. They were the first wave of returnees who left their displacement camps and were able to reach the north before phoning their relatives and telling them what had happened.
When thousands more attempted to do the same, the Israeli army shot at them. They had not been sent an invitation.