Stunning Images Show Tens Of Thousands Of Gazans Returning To Destroyed Homes On Foot

For the first time after nearly a year-and-a-half, tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians are returning to their homes in the northern Gaza Strip en masse.

Photos and overhead drone footage reveal surprisingly large throngs of Gazan families returning to what are likely destroyed homes and communities on foot, sometimes carrying all possessions on their backs.

Al Jazeera is capturing many of these scenes, and spoke with some of the returning displaced. “We want to go see our family. I want to see my mother and father. We haven’t seen them for 15 months. It’s a long time,” Ahmad Adas, a young displaced Palestinian, told the outlet.

And 19-year old Mohammed Adas described, “I haven’t seen my family for a year and a half. I’ve been waiting for three days to go to my parents. We are tired. I want to go to Gaza City, we’re not coming back here.”

The ceasefire has held after two rounds of hostage exchanges, and most of the displaced have been living in crowded and squalid tent camps or schools which have been turned into shelters.

“Starting at 7 a.m., Palestinians were allowed to cross on foot without inspection through part of the so-called Netzarim Corridor, a military zone bisecting the territory just south of Gaza City that Israel carved out early in the war,” Times of Israel details.

“Massive crowds of people carrying their belongings on foot stretched along a coastal highway in a stunning reversal of the mass exodus from the north at the start of the war,” the report continues.

What highways still exist are also packed with cars and traffic:

Hundreds of vehicles are crossing from the southern Gaza Strip to the north after months of forced displacement. pic.twitter.com/Ur0RiVEF4m

— Clash Report (@clashreport) January 27, 2025

Regional war correspondent Elijah Magnier observes that these are scenes of defiance which strike out against both Netanyahu and Washington…

“This is what a total defeat, not victory, of Benjamin Netanyahu looks like. Media reports the return on foot of tens of thousands of Palestinians from the south to the north of Gaza after 15 months of war through the ‘death corridor’ called Netzarim via Al Rashid coastal road that opened minutes ago,” he writes.

In some cases Palestinians have said they are motivated to return after Trump’s remarks saying Egypt and Jordan should just absorb all Gazans as the Strip is already destroyed.

“Tell the whole world… We are ready to die in our land, this is the proof before Trump’s eyes”… “Tell Trump he’s dreaming if he thinks he will displace us to Jordan and Egypt”

A #Palestinian woman refuses displacement and prefers to die in the country rather than leave… pic.twitter.com/rWqcMqpp66

— Middle East Observer (@ME_Observer_) January 27, 2025

“Cars are allowed in through Salahoddine street after an inspection conducted by an American security agency. The Palestinians of the north are mainly 1948 refugees who refuse to leave Palestine and accept to live in a tent but stay. Israel can never defeat these people,” Magnier concludes.

President Trump over the weekend controversially said he wants Egypt, Jordan, and other Arab nations to accept more Palestinian refugees from the Gaza Strip, with the goal of moving out enough of the war-torn area’s population to “just clean [it] out” and create a virtual clean slate of the Palestinian territory

1 million human beings survived the genocide are returning to their homes in North Gaza. Though im not sure there are any homes to go back to. pic.twitter.com/2Qr2kSu5GS

— Syrian Girl (@Partisangirl) January 27, 2025

“I’d like Egypt to take people,” Trump said. “You’re talking about probably a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing and say, ‘You know, it’s over.’”

But judging by the ongoing scenes of Palestinians flocking back to the north and all parts of the Gaza Strip, it doesn’t look like anyone is ready to give up just yet, underscoring that it’s not over.