Officials say over 300k displaced Palestinians return north of Gaza

“Today, more than 300,000 displaced Palestinians from the southern and central governorates returned to the Gaza and northern governorates via al-Rashid and Salah al-Din streets,” the Government Media Office in the Gaza Strip said on Monday.

“This comes after 470 days of the genocide committed by the Israeli occupation army,” it reminded, referring to the war that began in October 2023 and claimed the lives of at least 47,000 Palestinians and destroy the biggest part of the Palestinian territory.

The office stressed that the returnees as well as those, who were already in Gaza, “urgently” required 135,000 tents and caravans, “as the destruction inflicted by the Israeli occupation army in these areas has exceeded 90%.”

“We call on the international community, international and United Nations organizations, and Arab states to open the crossings and bring in essential supplies to shelter our dignified Palestinian people,” the body noted.

Despite the massive toll that the brutal Israeli military onslaught has taken on Gazans, the ceasefire agreement has been hailed as a victory by Palestinians and their supporters.

Those in favor of the deal stress that it came by amid the regime’s desperation in the face of interminable and successful anti-Israeli operations by the region’s resistance movements.

They also assert that the agreement was brought about, despite the regime’s falling short of realizing its wartime objectives, including “elimination” of Gaza’s resistance groups, enabling the return of the Zionists, who have been captured by the movements, and prompting forced exodus of Gaza’s entire population to neighboring Egypt.