Crowds of joyous Palestinians stream into northern Gaza — though uncertainty awaits them
Crowds of joyous Palestinians stream into northern Gaza — though uncertainty awaits them
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From early Monday morning and hours afterward, crowds of Palestinians filled Gaza’s main coastal road for kilometers (miles) as they streamed north. With their belongings on their backs, they smiled, hugged and sang, overjoyed at the prospect of returning home after more than a year of war.
Associated Press photos, videos and drone footage show tens of thousands making their way on foot along the road. On one side was the Mediterranean Sea; on the other stretched a landscape of destroyed buildings and bulldozed land left behind by withdrawing Israeli forces.
Families carried bags of belongings and rolled up blankets. On their shoulders, men carried young children — or sacks of food and metal cannisters of cooking gas. Women balanced infants in their arms with satchels of clothes and jugs of water. A little girl dressed in teddy-bear pyjamas held her younger sister's hand as they trailed their mother. A teenager strapped a pet carrier to his chest with his cat inside.
Ahead of the returning Palestinians lies an uncertain fate. Many of their homes were destroyed as more than 15 months of Israeli bombardment and ground offensive against Hamas have leveled large parts of Gaza City and the surrounding north. Still, the mood was celebratory — a sharp contrast to the fear and shock expressed by Palestinians over the past year as they were driven south along this same route to escape Israel's offensive. Many on Monday were smiling. A child waved a “V-for-victory” sign. Two friends hugged in a reunion.
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