Amid Iranian-Israeli tensions, dozens of displaced Palestinians find their way home in north Gaza

While Israel scrambled to confront missiles and drones launched by Iran and its proxies two days ago, dozens of Palestinians made their way toward Gaza City and the northern areas of the besieged Strip via the coastal road linking the governorates of the 365 square kilometre territory.

On Saturday night, Iran launched more than 300 ballistic missiles and drones at Israeli in response to an Israeli airstrike on the Islamic Republic's diplomatic consulate in Syria on 1 April. 

As a result, Israel declared a state of emergency and temporarily ceased its military air activities in the Gaza Strip, which has been witnessing a large-scale war for more than seven consecutive months, to avoid any adverse effects on its army during the Iranian attack.

For Mohammed, the Iranian-Israeli escalation was a golden opportunity to try and return to his city,  Gaza City, from which he was displaced seven months ago due to severe Israeli airstrikes and restrictions by the Israeli army. 

The five-hour journey was not easy. Despite fears they would be targeted or arrested and tortured by the Israeli forces stationed in the area, Mohammed and his wife and four children walked home. 

"It was not an adventure but was like a quick suicide attempt... We die several times every day because of the life of displacement that we live in the southern regions, which do not have the minimum necessities of life or safety," the 42-year-old father of four remarked to The New Arab. 

"I believe that we [Palestinians] may die because of bombing, hunger, or even fear... Here [in Gaza City], we may also die for the same reasons, but at least we may die on top of the rubble of our homes."

Adopting some of the security safety precautions, he tried to hide among the piles of sand spread along the coastal strip, not to be noticed by the Israeli forces stationed in the vicinity.

Once he arrived in the western part of Gaza City, he was immediately shocked by the widespread destruction.

"I felt that I did not know the place there (...) Everything was destroyed, and the landmarks of our city had completely disappeared. I smelled death everywhere. The area was empty of its inhabitants. It was as if the city had turned into a ghost town," Mohammed said. 

He continued on his way towards his destroyed house, hardly recognising the streets leading to it. As soon as he reached his neighbourhood, which Israeli forces annihilated, he collapsed, crying, screaming and calling out for his neighbours.

"We lived here and spent so many years with our neighbours and relatives and kept memories... Everything is now in the past. But we will continue to live and remain on our land no matter how much Israel tries to displace us and kill us," he remarked. 

Mohammed and his family are now sheltered at a school of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Refugees in Gaza City, seeking to remain until the end of the war. He believes that being displaced inside the city of Gaza (despite his family's difficulties) is better than seeking refuge outside it.

"Here, we can find all our people, and we can at least walk around the streets where we grew up and check on our loved ones, but in the South, we lost everything, even our dignity and normal life," he explained. 

The situation is not much different for Halima, another displaced Palestinian woman from the town of Beit Lahia, who was forced to flee several shelters because of the ongoing Israeli bombing. She finally decided to take the risk and return to the remains of her destroyed home in the northern Gaza Strip.

"Nothing in the world can make me feel as safe as my home (...) The Israeli bombing did stop in the Gaza Strip for more than seven months, and there is no safe place in the entire coastal enclave. Therefore, I would rather go back and die in my home than die in camps," she spoke to TNA. 

Halima and her children sought shelter at her relatives' house in Beit Lahia. She believes that she has finally found a warm place that might make her feel somewhat safe, even as Israel's onslaught continues.

Both Mohammed and Halima were among dozens of Gazans who were able to move along the coastal road of Gaza City and reach their homes safely without being killed or arrested. Others weren't so lucky. Among the thousands of people who rushed along the same road trying to go home in the northern areas of the besieged coastal enclave, Israeli forces killed at least five. 

Many of those who tried to return home were motivated by rumours that the Israeli army had finally allowed women, children and the elderly to return to northern Gaza.

However, the Israeli army denied this, saying  in a press statement, "There is no truth to the rumours that have spread that it is permissible to return to the north (...) We warn everyone against returning unless a political decision is taken to do so."

Despite Israeli threats to target displaced Palestinians if they attempt to go north, Ibtisam al-Zant from Gaza City decided to take the risk and go to her home located in the west of Gaza City.

"I miss my home (even if it has become just rubble), and I miss my life in Gaza. I miss breathing the air of Gaza and walking in its streets. The war has been prolonged, and we have not found any solution until now, and I fear that I will die in the south," the 49-year-old mother of eight said to TNA. 

Immediately after Al-Zant arrived in the Sheikh Ajlin area in the south of Gaza City, the Israeli army opened fire on people, wounding her in the foot.

"I was raising the white flag, and all I wanted was to return to my home and my city (...) We do not pose any threat to Israel, but the Israeli army insists on keeping us away from our lives, from our city, and from everything we love here," she said. 

Al-Zant hopes that all displaced people will be allowed to return to Gaza City and northern Gaza, and that the Israeli war against them will stop. 

Israel has been waging a large-scale war on the Gaza Strip since 7 October, after Hamas carried out a surprise attack on Israeli military bases and civilian settlements within and around the Gaza envelope. 

Continuous Israeli attacks forced more than 1.9 million Palestinians to flee to the southern and central areas of the Gaza Strip and live in very difficult conditions in the absence of food, medicine, water, and the necessities of human life.

UN and international organisations have warned that Israel's continued use of a policy of collective punishment would lead to humanitarian disaster, especially in light of a lack of a political solution anytime soon.