The War Is Not Over’: Israel Blocks Palestinians’ From Returning Home

Israeli troops violently blocked displaced Palestinians in Southern Gaza from returning to their homes in the North on 24 November following the start of a four-day truce. 

Israeli soldiers injured seven Palestinians as they attempted to return to their homes in northern Gaza, eyewitnesses told WAFA News Agency. 

The Israeli army earlier warned that returning from South to North “will not be allowed in any way,” referring to Northern Gaza as a “combat zone.” 

“The Israeli occupation forces have used different methods to crack down on those attempts to reach the north of the Gaza Strip by using and firing gas canisters,” Al- Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum reported from the Southern city of Khan Yunis. 

“In some cases, they have opened fire, and several Palestinians have been injured and taken back to hospitals in the south of the territory,” he said. 

Abu Azzoum added that some who returned north found their homes completely “wiped out.” 

“There is a sense of frustration for those who did not manage to return to their houses, check on it, or at least pull their loved ones from the rubble,” he added. 

The four-day ceasefire was agreed to on 22 November and took effect two days later.

Thirty-nine Palestinian women and teenage males are expected to be released from Israeli prisons in exchange for the release of 13 Israeli women and children being held by Hamas in Gaza.

A total of 50 Israelis and 150 Palestinians are expected to be exchanged across the four-day truce.

About 1.7 million Palestinians have been internally displaced since the start of Israel’s ethnic cleansing campaign in Gaza, one of the world’s most densely populated regions on earth.

The Cradle.co