For this moment some people gave out sweets. Some flashed the passing photographers with the signs of victory. A group of small boys led a glorious chant. “On the right or left, the north is the best,” they sang. “We’re going north!”
So many people tried to leave that it was difficult to walk through the central city of Deir Al Balah, the center of the displaced gazans. The family took tents after the family and packed things in plastic bags. Some people lifted on the back of the gas tank. One man attached the wheels to the plastic box and turned it into a temporary stroller for his child.
During walking, they imagined cheering to meet relatives who ignored Israeli evacuation orders and stayed in the north at the beginning of the war.
“The first thing I do is to hug my mother in her shelter,” Anwar Abu Hindi, 41, a housewife heading north with several children. “Our emotions are everywhere.”
But in the middle of euphoria there were hints of caution and frustration. For starters, people who were aimed by car to the north of the inland highway met with long traffic jams; Private suppliers of security services were examined by vehicles heading north and slowed down cars to crawl.
And many were afraid of what awaited them on arrival. Northern Gaza has become a wasteland after intense Israeli air raids and military demolitions of many buildings, many of which have been manipulated by traps and explosives by Hamas. In recent months, wild struggles between Israel and Hamas, which continued until the beginning of the ceasefire this month, caused especially extensive damage north of Gaza.
Many of those who were returning on Monday did not know whether their houses were still standing.
“Thank God that we survived this war,” said Shorouq Al-Qur, 27, a graduate of law that returned to Gaza. But she said, “No matter where we find shelter, whether here or there, it’s still life in tents surrounded by destruction and sadness.”
