Displaced Palestinians in Gaza set up tents adjacent to the border with Egypt (Al Jazeera)

Gaza -

“A new exodus, not a return home,” is how Abu Khalil explains his departure from the city of Rafah and heading again towards the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.

Abu Khalil was displaced with his family (six members) from his home in Gaza City on October 13, and took refuge in his wife’s family’s home in the Nuseirat camp and stayed there for about two months, before he was forced to flee for the second time towards the city of Rafah after the battles intensified in the central governorate of the Strip. Following the incursion of the occupation forces overland.

In Rafah, which local and international estimates indicate is currently housing nearly half of the Strip’s population of 2.2 million people, Abu Khalil was one of the lucky few and found a house to rent, and he did not go through the bitter experience - as he described it - of staying in tents or crowded shelter centers.

A banner return of displaced people from Rafah to the central Gaza Strip, and the occupation warns against attempts to return to Gaza City and its north (Al Jazeera)

Fears

For about a month and a half, Abu Khalil, who preferred to speak to Al Jazeera Net by his nickname, lived in this house under construction in the city of Rafah, whose streets, neighborhoods and camps have become crowded with more than a million displaced people, who took refuge there during the past four months as a result of horrific Israeli crimes that have continued since the outbreak of war on 7 Last October.

This forty-year-old displaced person says that the situation in Rafah is catastrophic, and life is becoming more tragic day by day, and it seems that it is “the next target of the occupation after Khan Yunis.”

Israel gradually launched its ground operations, starting from Gaza City and the northern Gaza Strip, passing through the cities and refugee camps in the Central Governorate, and is currently continuing its ground incursion into the city of Khan Yunis, adjacent to the city of Rafah to the north, where there is increasing talk in the Hebrew media about a possible ground operation.

Describing the outcome of the living and humanitarian conditions in Rafah, the United Nations said that “the continued displacement has turned it into a pressure cooker filled with despair.” As for Abu Khalil, his despair has reached its peak, and he says, “I lost my money and my home in Gaza, and I do not want to lose my family.”

The United Nations and international circles warn of the consequences of Israel expanding its ground operation to include the city of Rafah, which threatens the lives of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.

Abu Khalil, his wife and four children were among the first to flee from Gaza City and the northern Gaza Strip in order to protect their lives. His commercial store and residential home were severely destroyed. He says, "I felt in great danger staying in Rafah in light of the increasing Israeli threats of a ground operation."

Back to the middle

The displaced people returning from Rafah to the central area of ​​the Gaza Strip take Al-Rashid Street, known as the Sea Road, which is the only outlet that the occupation forces left open for the movement of people, and they push residents to migrate through it towards the south of the Gaza Strip, especially to the city of Rafah.

While Abu Khalil uses his own car for frequent displacement, the majority are forced to use goods transport vehicles and animal-drawn carts, after taxi traffic stopped due to running out of fuel.

Abu Khalil found his wife's family home partially destroyed, surrounded by major destruction of residential homes and infrastructure. However, he believes that the Nuseirat camp is safer - currently - than the city of Rafah, and it suffered a large share of killing and destruction during the ground operation in the central region.

This same man hopes to temporarily travel outside Gaza until the war ends or to return to his home in Gaza City and the end of the bitter journey of displacement. He says, “I want to return to my home, even if it is in a tent on its ruins.”

In turn, Umm Abdullah Al-Qatrawi returned to the Nuseirat camp, and her husband, Abu Abdullah, told Al Jazeera Net, "She could no longer bear the tent life and decided to return to her family's home in the camp."

An Israeli air strike destroyed the Al-Qatrawi family’s apartment in the “Mohandiseen Tower” in the camp. Fate was merciful to her and she left a few days before this raid, which claimed the lives of dozens.

Abu Abdullah adds, "This apartment is our whole life, and we only have it. We lost everything in it, and Umm Abdullah decided to return to her family home after 40 days of bitter displacement in a tent near the border with Egypt, west of the city of Rafah."

This man did not return with his wife and preferred to remain in the tent to preserve her life in anticipation of what he described as uncertain conditions, and to provide a refuge for his family in the event that any emergency occurred in the central region and they found themselves forced to flee again.

Forbidden return

The occupation tanks and military vehicles retreated from densely populated areas to the outskirts of the camps and cities, which encouraged the return of the displaced to their homes or what remained of them, including the Abu Bakr family, consisting of 50 individuals.

Islam Abu Bakr told Al Jazeera Net, "My family returned to Nuseirat camp due to Israeli threats to the city of Rafah, and the poor living conditions there."

This large family was residing in two small residential apartments in eastern Rafah, and according to Islam, the fear of an Israeli ground operation was the main reason for the decision to return to the central region, in addition to “severe overcrowding, scarcity of aid, and the difficulty of providing the basic necessities of life, such as water and food.” .

The return of the displaced from the central region affects the high population density of the city of Rafah, the majority of which is from Gaza City and the cities of the northern Gaza Strip, to which the occupation authorities prevent return, and are still forcing those remaining there to flee on foot towards the south via the coastal sea road.

While Israeli air strikes destroyed the “Wadi Gaza Bridge” on the sea road to prevent the passage of cars, it tightens its control over the Salah al-Din Road and prevents movement on it, which are the only two roads linking the north and south of the Gaza Strip.

The threatening and intimidating leaflets dropped by Israeli aircraft on areas south of the Gaza Strip do not stop, warning against returning to Gaza City and its north. In the latest of these leaflets, the occupation army says that “the entire area north of the Gaza Valley is still considered a dangerous combat zone,” and warns against attempts to return to it.

Source: Al Jazeera