Umm Ali Muheisen skipped across the road when she saw her daughter and grandchildren after 15 months separated by the war in Gaza, clutching them in a tight embrace as Palestinians reunited with loved ones after a ceasefire in the war.
Their reunion was one of many taking place just inside northern Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of displaced people returning from the south are going back, looking for surviving family members and whatever remains of their homes.
“I want to hold them. I want to get enough of them. I have not seen them for 15 months. I missed them so, so much,” Muheisen said, lifting her little granddaughter.
War erupted on October 7, 2023, when the Palestinian terror group Hamas led thousands of terrorists in an invasion of southern Israel that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians. Terrorists who rampaged murderously through communities also abducted 251 people of all ages who were taken as hostages to Gaza.
Israel responded with a military campaign to destroy Hamas and save the hostages. The fighting was more intense in northern Gaza than anywhere else in the coastal enclave and civilians there were repeatedly ordered to avoid combat areas by leaving for the south where the Israel Defense Forces set up a humanitarian zone.
None who did so were allowed to return to the north until Monday — a key Hamas condition of the ceasefire agreement concluded earlier this month and many of them are now heading home.
However, the Israeli military has assessed that only tens of thousands of Palestinians have returned to the northern Gaza Strip since troops withdrew from most of the Netzarim Corridor, which bisects Gaza and across which movement was stopped during the war.
Hamas claimed Monday that “over 300,000 displaced” returned to the Strip’s north.
The Times of Israel learned that according to the IDF’s assessments as of Tuesday morning, that number is far lower, estimated in the tens of thousands.
Many of the buildings in northern Gaza were destroyed amid the fighting, and it is unclear where civilians are supposed to reside. In southern Gaza, tent camps were constructed for displaced civilians.
Muheisen had been waiting since the morning at the first roundabout after the checkpoint into the north half of Gaza for her daughter Souad Atallah, along with her son-in-law and two grandchildren.
All around her people were on the move. Men, women, and children marched, carrying huge packs on their backs or clasped in their arms. Some pushed wheelchairs or prams laden with suitcases and bags. Mopeds pulled trailers loaded with belongings.
At the checkpoint, vehicles were lining up for miles to get back into the north.
The roundabout was a popular spot for reunions. With phone and internet connections very weak, it was an easy place to meet and groups could be seen hugging, kissing and crying with joy.
“Separation is hard and the waiting is harder. I have been waiting for them since the morning. The waiting is hard, hard,” Muheisen said.
Her daughter, Atallah, left with her family at the start of the war, when southern areas of Gaza seemed safer.
Although the north continued to be hit hardest, Israel’s campaign to root out Hamas terrorists, whom it accused of embedding themselves among civilians, left almost no corner of the Gaza Strip untouched, and most families were urged to flee ahead of IDF operations.
“I have been waiting for 15 months to leave the south. My family, my sisters, my family, everything, our houses, are all here, all here in the north. I regret the day I left the north for the south. I was waiting night by night, hour by hour,” Atallah said.
Despite their relief at the reunion, the smashed-up buildings in the background indicated how hard the family’s recovery will be. The family home was one of many destroyed in fighting and they will all be living in a tent, Muheisen said.
“The destruction is not a problem. The important thing is that they stayed alive, thank God. We will live in a tent. The important thing is that they are alive,” she said.
Under the terms of the complex, three-stage ceasefire, Hamas will release hostages in batches in return for Israel withdrawing from most of Gaza and setting free thousands of Palestinian security prisoners it has imprisoned, including hundreds convicted of deadly terror attacks.
The return of displaced Gazans to their homes in the north was a key demand by Hamas during mediated negotiations for the ceasefire.