Palestinians return to Gaza City: Kiss the ground, clean up rubble

Some 300,000 refugees  returned to northern Gaza, reuniting with family members they had been separated from for 15 months; Families gathered to celebrate their reunions, marking the moment with both joy and determination; 'We will not leave again,' one returning refugee says, 'not even Trump will make us emigrate'

Einav Halabi, Reuters|
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Displaced Palestinians returning to their homes in Gaza City this week found a city in ruins after 15 months of fighting, with many seeking shelter among the rubble and searching for relatives lost in the chaotic return march.
Gaza City, in the north of the enclave, is a shell of the bustling urban center it was before the war, with swathes of buildings destroyed by bombardments and piles of rubble and torn-up concrete on every side.
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Palestinians in the Gaza Strip
(Video: Reuters, Tik Tok)
"Look at this scene, there is nothing to say," said a man who gave his name as Abu Mohammad as he searched for a place to settle. "People will sleep on the ground. There is nothing left."
Many of those returning, often laden with what personal possessions they still have after months of being moved around as the battlegrounds shifted, had trekked 20 km (12 miles) or more along the coastal highway north.
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חצאים עזתים שחזרו לצפון רצועת עזה מנקים את ההרס ומנקים את האדמה
חצאים עזתים שחזרו לצפון רצועת עזה מנקים את ההרס ומנקים את האדמה
Palestinians return to Gaza City
"I am waiting for my father, mother and brother. We lost them on the way," said Jameel Abed, who walked up from the central area of the Gaza Strip. "We found some lights here and we are waiting for them," he said.
"There is no car, no motorized rickshaw, no donkey cart, no vehicle, nothing that could move on this road."
By late on Monday, Gaza's Hamas authorities said more than 300,000 people, or almost half of those displaced from the north during the war, had crossed into Gaza City and the north edge of the enclave from areas in the south.
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חזרת העקורים הפלסטינים לצפון רצועת עזה
חזרת העקורים הפלסטינים לצפון רצועת עזה
(Photo: AP/Jehad Alshrafi)
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Even as those who arrived in Gaza looked around for somewhere to settle down, tens of thousands were still moving north as mediators began preliminary work on the second stage of cease-fire negotiations due to begin next week.
Three more Israeli hostages are due to be handed over on Thursday by Hamas, the terror group still in control of Gaza, with another three expected on Saturday, in exchange for scores of Palestinian prisoners set for release from Israeli jails, some of whom will go into exile.
In Cairo, a high-level Hamas team led by Mohammad Darwish, head of the group's leading council, held talks with Egyptian mediators and welcomed 70 Palestinian prisoners who arrived in Cairo prior to being moved to third countries who would be willing to host them, a Hamas statement said.
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חזרת העקורים הפלסטינים לצפון רצועת עזה
חזרת העקורים הפלסטינים לצפון רצועת עזה
(Photo: AP/Jehad Alshrafi)
These include Qatar, Turkey and Algeria, according to Hamas and other sources.
Later on Tuesday, Hamas said the delegation has also discussed with Cairo officials alleged Israeli violations of the truce and ideas to achieve national unity with the rival Palestinian Authority of President Mahmoud Abbas, including an Egyptian proposal to form a committee to run post-war Gaza.
Hamas, which has run Gaza since 2007, and Abbas' authority, which has a sway in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, have so far failed to end political splits that weakened Palestinian aspirations for statehood.

Negotiations for the second phase of the cease-fire

Under the terms of the cease-fire, agreed this month with Egyptian and Qatari mediation and U.S. support, 33 hostages are due to be released during a six-week cease-fire, in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, many of them serving life sentences in Israeli jails. Seven hostages and 290 prisoners have so far been exchanged.
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חזרת העקורים הפלסטינים לצפון רצועת עזה
חזרת העקורים הפלסטינים לצפון רצועת עזה
(Photo: AP/Jehad Alshrafi)
A second stage, which will decide what happens to more than 60 other hostages, including men of military age as well as a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, is due to begin by next Tuesday.
But Sami Abu Zuhri, a senior Hamas official, said the group believed the talks would go ahead.
"We are ready to begin negotiations for the second phase at the specified time and are confident that Netanyahu has no choice but to proceed with the second phase," he said.
What would follow full implementation of the cease-fire remains unclear after Israel's repeated declarations that Hamas will not be allowed to remain in power in Gaza. U.S. President Donald Trump's call for Palestinians in Gaza to be taken to Egypt or Jordan, though strongly rejected in the region and by Palestinian officials and residents, has further complicated the outlook.
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