As soon as the ceasefire was announced, and before it was pronounced “safe,” almost 180,000 Gazans began the long march, returning to northern Gaza, knowing that their homes had been destroyed. On Oct. 4, a statement from the Gaza Civil Defense said that over 300,000 people had made the trek to Gaza City over the past two days. (Mondoweiss, Oct. 9)

Hamas Political Bureau member Izzat Al Risheq said, “That epic crossing of the Palestinian people, across all generations, from the south of the Gaza Strip to its north, and their inability to wait hours until their crossing arrangements were completed more safely, is not an ordinary scene. … 

He continued: “The people of Gaza chose to return immediately and without delay. This collective behavior is in itself an act of resistance whose meaning is clear as the sun: No Nakba after the Nakba of 1948. As Palestinians, we have a path and a future in one direction: return. Today, back to our cities from which the zionist extermination army displaced us in the Gaza Strip, and tomorrow, back to our cities and villages from which the zionist gangs displaced us the first time. This is the path.” (Resistance News Network, Oct. 10)

Gaza Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Basal wrote: “My smile is not a sign of forgetting. It’s a testimony that Gaza’s heart, despite everything, still beats with dignity and life.”

After showing pictures of totally devastated buildings, Basal explained   “They don’t tell the whole story, but they make one thing clear. The work is far from finished. Palestinian liberation has not yet been achieved, yet tomorrow is another day to rebuild Gaza, to defend it and to continue working toward complete liberation.” (Resistance News Network, Oct. 10)

We return to our people

Wael Al-Najjar, who was returning to his home in Jabalia in the north, said he had been displaced three times since the war began.

As soon as news of the ceasefire deal broke, he got ready to return home. “We are waiting, sitting by the crossing. My son and I slept here last night, on the pavement, in the cold, waiting to go back home,” he told a BBC freelancer. “Even if the house is destroyed, even if it’s just rubble, we’ll go back, put up a tent and return to our people.” (BBC, Oct. 9)

Muhammad Hadeidah said: “All I think about is returning to my neighborhood east of Khan Younis. I want to start collecting my belongings and return home, even if the home isn’t there anymore.” (Mondoweiss, Oct. 9)

The BBC describes the returning Palestinians as “tired,” and they are, having walked the long coastal road to Gaza City, in the north of Gaza, many miles, carrying all their belongings and having endured bombs, massacres, starvation and constant displacement for at least two years. But their comments show that they are in no way defeated. The focus is on the future, on rebuilding.

Mahmoud Barbakh, from Khan Younis, told Mondoweiss, “All we ask is for the world to help us clear the ruins to make it possible again for us to live with our families and for our children to grow up here.” (Oct.11)

Mahmoud Wady, another returnee, reflects on what he and his loved ones have witnessed over the past two years and what it has done to them:  “This war broke us. It damaged our souls. We need decades to heal, and we need even more decades to rebuild our homes. But we will do it.” Like many others, he has begun gathering wood and fabric to build a makeshift tent near the ruins of his home. (Mondoweiss, Oct. 11)

The Palestinians are indeed indomitable and steadfast.