Gazans Defy Forced Displacement, Return to the North Despite Ongoing Israeli Assault
They refuse to abandon their land, rejecting Israel’s campaign of forced displacement and ethnic cleansing despite relentless bombardment and deepening humanitarian catastrophe
Palestine, PUREWILAYAH.COM - Amid the intensifying Israeli assault on Gaza and the north — which has left vast destruction to homes and infrastructure — residents remain steadfast, rejecting Israel’s policy of forced displacement.
Across the devastated neighborhoods, one slogan echoes: “Here we will stay… we will not leave.”
Despite repeated threats and evacuation orders from the Israeli army to move south, thousands of families have refused to flee, enduring relentless bombardment, destruction, and a worsening famine that has turned survival into a daily struggle.
Since August 11, the Israeli military has launched a new ground offensive in Gaza City, committing what local authorities describe as a series of genocidal massacres against Palestinian families and densely populated neighborhoods.
According to Gaza’s Government Media Office, the offensive has killed 1,100 people in just three weeks and deployed over 100 booby-trapped robots inside residential areas.
The Great Deception
While some families were forced to flee south, many have since returned after realizing that the so-called “safe zone” in the south was nothing more than an Israeli ploy to empty the north of its population.
In a narrow alley of Al-Karama neighborhood, northwest Gaza, Um Raed Hammouda sits outside her worn tent, recalling her family’s forced journey to Deir al-Balah.
Carrying her child while her husband pushed a cart with blankets, they walked for hours under constant bombardment.
“It wasn’t just displacement,” she said. “It felt like our souls were being torn from our bodies… We saw women screaming, children crying, and lifeless bodies on the roadside. We didn’t know if we would survive the journey.”
But life in the south offered no salvation — only hardship. “We slept on the pavement the first night, with no water, no food, no shelter.
My children cried from hunger and thirst,” she said. Within days, they decided to return to Gaza, determined to live among their people despite the risks.
Dignity Over Safety
Abu Ahed al-Shamali faced the same ordeal. Heavy shelling forced him south to al-Zawaida, but what he found was unbearable. “We slept crammed in a three-meter tent, with no air or privacy.
My son slept on muddy ground, shaking from exhaustion and hunger. I felt I lost my humanity,” he said.
He soon returned to his destroyed home in Gaza, declaring, “At least here, I feel I belong — this is my land, my neighbors, my memories, even if there’s no water, no electricity, no food.”
Return Despite Ruin
Those who came back to the north found no livable homes. Many built makeshift shelters from scrap fabric and metal sheets, rejecting the idea of indefinite exile in the south.
“To us, returning under bombardment is better than living in humiliation in the unknown,” Abu Ahed said firmly.
Unbroken Resilience
Despite death surrounding them, Gazans send a clear message: No to uprooting, no to displacement, no to a new Nakba.
In every destroyed home and every tent pitched atop rubble, the belief is renewed that the homeland is not just a place — it is dignity, and a right that can never be taken away. (PW)
Source: Palinfo