Tens of Thousands Return to Northern Gaza in Challenge to 'Israel'

By Al Mayadeen English

24 Nov 2023 22:08

The Israeli occupation's threats are falling on resilient, deaf ears as the Palestinian residents of Gaza return to their homes in the north despite these threats.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been since the morning, the time when the ceasefire deal went into effect, returning to the northern Gaza Strip from the south, Israeli media reported on Friday.

The media added that the Israeli occupation forces will take strict measures to prevent the Palestinians from moving between the south and north of the Gaza Strip.

In response, Israeli Cabinet member Israel Katz told Channel 12 that "the army is trying to prevent tens of thousands of Palestinians from returning to the northern Gaza Strip," stating that "the situation in the north will not return to what it was before."

Israeli Security Minister Yoav Galant reiterated that "the ceasefire is a short truce, and the Israeli army will return with full force at its end."

Despite the threats from the Israeli occupation forces, which deployed tanks and military vehicles in the north and had targeted the displaced who left the northern Gaza Strip for the south, those same displaced people, upon the implementation of the ceasefire in the early hours of Friday, began to return to the North of Gaza. They flocked to their homes, hospitals, and cemeteries in a blatant challenge to the Israeli occupation.

The Israeli occupation is "threatening to open fire on anyone that approaches its forces stationed in the city of Beit Hanoun," an Al Mayadeen correspondent reported.

Returning despite the threats

"The residents have started to return to Beit Hanoun with the withdrawal of occupation forces and the beginning of the ceasefire," he added, noting that the occupation forces, with their soldiers stationed in the town, prevent residents from advancing.

Residents of Beit Hanoun confirmed that the occupation forces are opening fire at those who try to pass a certain point in Beit Hanoun while our correspondent explained that residents insist on inspecting their properties regardless of the threats being made by the Israeli occupation forces.

Some residents on Salah al-Din Street in the central Gaza Strip stated that the occupation was opening fire toward gatherings of residents who came out to inspect their properties, with its tanks positioned in front of Kuwait Square.

Earlier in the day, aid and fuel trucks started to enter the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing as the temporary ceasefire came into effect this morning, lasting for four days. This period involves the release of several detainees, including child detainees, from Israeli occupation prisons, along with the entry of relief aid and quantities of fuel. In return, the Palestinian resistance will release some of the captives in its custody.

In the hours leading up to the implementation of the temporary truce, the Israeli occupation forces carried out intensive airstrikes on the north, central, and southern parts of the Gaza Strip, targeting schools that shelter displaced people, hospitals, and residential buildings, resulting in dozens of martyrs and injuries.

UNRWA hampers aid delivery to North

On another note, sources told Al Mayadeen today that only 3 trucks loaded with aid arrived at areas in northern Gaza.

UNRWA has proven time and again that it is colluding with the Israeli policy of ethnic cleansing the northern part of Gaza during the period of the aggression on the Strip, as the head of the Government Media Office Salamah Maarouf said on October 31.

Maarouf said that UNRWA and its officials are not living up to their obligations and that they are conspiring with "Israel" which seeks to forcibly displace Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.

On his part, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Health, Ashraf al-Qudra, said that the UN agency has turned its back on the residents of the Gaza Strip in general, leaving children unvaccinated, and terminally ill individuals without medication, as well as neglecting the needs o hospitals all over the Gaza Strip.

Footage circulated on social media platforms, depicting UNRWA storage rooms filled with aid, while Palestinians are being killed by the Israeli war machine.