GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Tens of thousands of Palestinians streamed into the most heavily destroyed part of the Gaza Strip on Monday as Israel lifted its closure of the north for the first time since the early weeks of the 15-month war with Hamas in accordance with a fragile ceasefire.
Massive crowds of people walking with their belongings stretched along a main road running next to the coast in a stunning reversal of the mass exodus from the north at the start of the war that many Palestinians had feared Israel would make permanent.
Palestinians who have been sheltering in squalid tent camps and schools-turned-shelters for over a year are eager to return to their homes — even though they have likely been damaged or destroyed.
Yasmin Abu Amshah, a mother of three, said she walked 6 kilometers (nearly 4 miles) to reach her home in Gaza City, where she found it damaged but still habitable. She also saw her younger sister for the first time in over a year. “It was a long trip, but a happy one,” she said. “The most important thing is that we returned.”
Many saw their return as an act of steadfastness after Israel’s military campaign, which was launched in response to the Hamas militant group’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel. The return was also seen as a repudiation of U.S. President Donald Trump’s suggestion that large numbers of Palestinians be resettled in Egypt and Jordan.
‘The joy of return’
Ismail Abu Matter, a father of four who waited for three days near the crossing point before moving north with his family, described scenes of jubilation on the other side, with people singing, praying and crying as they were reunited with relatives.
“It’s the joy of return,” said Abu Matter, whose relatives were among the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled or were driven out of what is now Israel during the 1948 war surrounding its creation. “We had thought we wouldn’t return, like our ancestors.”
The opening was delayed for two days over a dispute between Hamas and Israel, which said the militant group changed the order of the hostages it released in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. Mediators resolved the dispute overnight.
Hamas said the return was “a victory for our people, and a declaration of failure and defeat for the (Israeli) occupation and transfer plans.”
The ceasefire is aimed at winding down the deadliest and most destructive war ever fought between Israel and Hamas and securing the release of dozens of hostages captured in the Oct. 7 attack. Militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in that assault and abducted another 250.
