Most residents of Gaza City did not respond to the threats and orders of the occupation that are trying to push them to flee south, despite the horrific massacres and the extensive bombing and shelling of homes and residential neighborhoods in the south, north, and east of the besieged city.
Official statements indicated that more than a million Palestinians remain in Gaza City, "refusing to succumb to the policy of forced displacement and ethnic cleansing, affirming their legendary steadfastness in the face of the criminal Israeli war machine."
While only a very few managed to flee south out of fear of the bombing extending and intensifying in the western areas of Gaza City, where the displaced are piling up, some carried their belongings and decided to go against the current, returning to the city despite the dangers and threats surrounding it, due to the difficult conditions of displacement in the southern areas.
In a conversation with "Arabi21," Suleiman Hijazi said he fled three days ago to the city of Deir al-Balah, searching for an empty place to pitch the stakes of his dilapidated tent, but he was shocked by the reality on the ground there, as severe congestion and overcrowding dominate the scene.
Hijazi pointed out that what remains of empty land in the western areas of Deir al-Balah is either unsuitable for habitation, already reserved, or offered for rent at exorbitant amounts that most residents of Gaza cannot afford after being financially drained over 23 months of brutal war, affirming at the same time that he decided to return to his destroyed home in Gaza to pitch his tent again on its ruins, saying: "We have entrusted our matter to God and are waiting for His fate and kindness."
For his part, Mohammed Al-Hissi said he decided to return to his displacement area west of Gaza City, near the coastal strip, after he became fed up with trying to find a tent or a place to take refuge in the Mawasi area of Khan Younis in the southern sector.
Al-Hissi noted in a special conversation with "Arabi21" that he fled last week from the town of Jabalia with his family amid the heavy bombing carried out by the occupation forces in the town, where he managed to settle in an area located west of the Al-Karama neighborhood in Gaza, before deciding to go to the areas that the occupation is pushing people to flee to in the southern sector.
He added: "I went alone to the Mawasi area of Khan Younis searching for a place to take refuge, intending to bring my family later, but I was surprised that the area was very crowded, with no place to pitch tents, and there are no services there (...), the area is a sad forest of crowded tents, with people burdened by worries and weighed down by wounds and suffering, and so I decided to return again to Gaza and stay there with my family despite all the dangers surrounding us."
In a related context, media sources told "Arabi21" that a large number of citizens returned on Monday to the Shujaiya neighborhood east of Gaza City, despite the bombing and the extensive destruction that struck the neighborhood due to the operations of the occupation forces there.
The sources pointed out that the occupation forces targeted the returnees, as they bombed a group of citizens in the vicinity of the Shujaiya police station, resulting in the martyrdom and injury of several of them, in an attempt to prevent people from returning to areas that had previously witnessed operations like Shujaiya, Zeitoun, and other areas in Gaza.
For its part, the government media office, in previous statements received by "Arabi21," stated that the occupation army promotes lies and false claims and disseminates misleading maps to forcibly displace the residents of Gaza and the north towards the south.
The office emphasized that the claims promoted by the occupation army regarding the existence of "vast empty spaces" in southern Gaza are false claims that contradict the field realities and represent an attempt to mislead international public opinion and cover up the crime of "widespread forced displacement," and that these allegations come as part of a propaganda campaign aimed at breaking the steadfastness of our Palestinian people in Gaza and the north.
It mentioned that the southern and central governorates of the Gaza Strip are completely overcrowded with more than one and a quarter million forcibly displaced individuals who fled from the continuous bombing, living in makeshift tents lacking the most basic facilities and without the minimum requirements for life.
It confirmed that the areas referred to by the occupation, whether in the "Mawasi" in Khan Younis or the "central camps," are limited lands not equipped to accommodate this huge number of people, most of which are farms or private lands, and some are
شارك برأيك
Ghazans against the current.. A return movement from the south to the north of the Gaza Strip despite the occupation's threats.