‘Kiss the soil’: Displaced Palestinians return home after Gaza ceasefire
Wire desk byline Sourced from Xinhua, Dawn, Arab News, Anadolu and Minute Mirror. Translated and abridged by the GSRRA Desk.
Forcibly displaced Palestinians return to what’s left of their homes after Israel-Hamas ceasefire comes into effect.
Tens of thousands of forcibly displaced Palestinians are heading to their homes, walking through devastated swaths of Gaza, after the long-awaited ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect following more than 15 months of war.
Israel on Sunday said a truce with Hamas began in Gaza at 11:15am (09:15 GMT), nearly three hours after initially scheduled, following a last-minute delay on the orders of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Almost the entire 2.3-million population of Gaza was forcibly displaced during the 15 months of genocide, in many cases more than once.
In the northern area of Jabalia, hundreds of Palestinians streamed down a sandy path, returning to an apocalyptic landscape dotted with piles of rubble and destroyed buildings.
In the main southern city of Khan Younis, people celebrated their pending homecoming.
“I am very, very happy,” said Wafa al-Habeel. “I want to go back and kiss the ground and the soil of Gaza. I am longing for Gaza [City] and longing for our loved ones.”
During the delay in the ceasefire coming into effect, Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli attacks killed at least 19 Palestinians.
Reference Link:- https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2025/1/19/photos-forcibly-displaced-palestinians-return-to-their-homes-in-gaza
Zamir Ahmed Awan is the founder and Chair of the Global Silk Route Research Alliance, a think tank in Islamabad. He studied engineering at Shanghai University in the 1980s, and years later he went back to China as Pakistan's science counsellor in Beijing, from 2010 until 2016, working on science and higher education cooperation between the two countries.…
