They left with their hearts in the Strip. Families from Gaza are waiting to return

Listen to the article. The audio text is automated, generated by an automated system

Leaving Gaza was not the end of the tragedy for those who found in Cairo a refuge from the war or an opportunity for treatment. Behind the borders, families remained facing bombardment and displacement, homes turned into rubble, and relatives whose bodies had not yet been recovered.

Between escaping danger and waiting for return, Palestinians live in the hope of regaining what can be restored from their lives. The stories of Omar Al-Hasayna, Abu Muhammad, from the Al-Mashharawi family, and Abu Tamer, from the Mushtaha family, converge at this hope.

Their circumstances and the extent of their losses may differ, but they look forward to returning, despite their awareness of the harsh reality that awaits them in the Gaza Strip. According to Palestinian Authority figures, more than 100,000 Palestinians who left Gaza during the war are still outside the Strip.

Note that the motives for leaving varied between the search for safety, the need for treatment, and the completion of studies, while for many, return remains linked to the availability of crossing and the availability of conditions that allow them to resume their lives, according to Reuters.

Omar Al-Hasayna arrived in Cairo after losing his wife, four of his adult children, and four of his grandchildren, including an infant who was only a few months old.

According to the Palestinian authorities, about 308 members of his extended family were killed in Israeli raids that destroyed residential buildings in Gaza City, where they had gathered for safety, on November 22, 2023.

Last August, Al-Hasayna watched from Cairo, via a video clip, the burial ceremony of 112 of his relatives after their bodies were recovered from the rubble, while dozens remained missing. The survivors were distributed among Egypt, Turkey, and Gaza, where one of his daughters remained with her five children after losing her husband.

Meanwhile, Al-Hasayna sold some of the goods that survived from his commercial activity to cover the expenses of his stay in Egypt, waiting for the situation to stabilize and the reconstruction to begin so that he could return and resume his work.

As for Abu Muhammad Al-Mashharawi, the wait to return went beyond the issue of returning to a home. He was in Egypt for treatment before the war broke out, then he was able to take two of his children out to complete their studies, while his wife and the rest of his family remained in Gaza, after they refused to leave despite injuries that affected some of them.

He said that the Al-Mashharawi family lost 55 of its members, and that his wife was among those injured. With his home destroyed and his work disrupted, his decision to return remains firm; He wants to join his wife, children, and father, and share with them the remaining burdens of life. He described the conditions inside the Strip as accumulated suffering: destroyed infrastructure, rubble surrounded by fears of pollution, the spread of rodents and diseases, and bombing that makes living in tents and areas crowded with displaced people far from safe.

As for Abu Tamer, who is from the Mushtaha family, he narrated that a wave of bombing, which he described as a “ring of fire,” affected an entire neighborhood and, according to his testimony, claimed the lives of about 250 people from his family and their in-laws in one strike. He said that he has been waiting for about a year and a half for his sick wife and mother to be released, while he is receiving treatment in Egypt. He describes how his family moved from a luxurious life to residing in a tent, struggling to survive, after losing their possessions and the means of living.

While he appreciates hosting Egypt, family reunification remains his most urgent demand, whether by allowing his family to go out for treatment or enabling him to return to them.

Abu Muhammad refused to consider the crossing of a limited number of patients as evidence of the return of normal movement through the crossing. He refers to an injured member of his family who has been waiting to travel for treatment for eight months, while he registered to return about a year and two months ago, without a confirmed date.

These testimonies come as about seven thousand Palestinians have returned to Gaza, according to Reuters, while the widespread return remains linked to facilitating crossing and clarifying the future of the Strip.

About a year after the ceasefire agreement, Israeli forces still control more than 60 percent of Gaza's territory and launch almost daily raids, while Hamas controls most of the Palestinians' residential areas.

Many are living in temporary shelters, with supplies that relief agencies describe as insufficient, and with no immediate prospect of reconstruction.

In the midst of this reality, the three men wait for a way back; One of them is to resume a life that has lost most of its people, and the other two are to join families whose suffering has not ended.