Khamis and Ahmad Imarah knew they wouldn’t find much more than rubble when returning to their home in northern Gaza. But they had to go. Their father and brother are still buried under the debris, more than a year after their home was struck by Israeli forces.
Iman Helles, a displaced mother sheltering in a facility run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees in Gaza, fears that she will now be “thrown out to the streets” with her three children.
Israel instructed buses carrying Palestinian detainees slated for release under the Gaza ceasefire deal with Hamas to return to prisons, an official involved in the operation told Reuters on Thursday.
After a ceasefire deal paused 15 months of war in Gaza, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians returned to the rubble of their homes.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed 15 months ago that Israel would achieve “total victory” in the war in Gaza — by eradicating Hamas and freeing all the hostages.
Palestinians are returning to areas ruined by 15 months of war after Israel and Hamas resolved a dispute over hostages that threatened to derail the ceasefire.
An Israeli air strike killed 10 Palestinians in the north of the occupied West Bank on Wednesday night, the Palestinian health ministry says. Video footage reportedly from the town of Tamun showed chaotic scenes, badly damaged buildings and bloodstained streets.
The president expanded on a controversial idea that was rejected by the Arab states and would represent a significant shift in U.S. policy.
Crowds of Palestinians fill Gaza’s main coastal road as they stream north. With their belongings on their backs, they smile, hug and sing, overjoyed at the prospect of returning home after more than a year of war.
They returned under a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, walking for hours to reach the bombed-out landscape.
US President Donald Trump on Thursday (Jan 30) insisted that Egypt and Jordan would take in displaced Gaza citizens after the two nations dismissed the American leader's plan to "clean out" the Palestinian territory.