Space keys carry symbolic weight for Palestinian families repeatedly displaced by war

MUWASI, Gaza Strip (AP) — On his key chain, Hassan Nofal helps keep the keys to 2 houses. One is the home of his grandparents in what is now southern Israel, who were once his people Driven out by Israeli forces in 1948 And where they could never go back.

The alternative is the area of ​​Nofal in northern Gaza, from which it had to flee last year, when Israel announced a bombing and offensive campaign in that area.

Over the course of nearly 9 months, Noufal and his men were uprooted four times, pushed from one side to the other around the Gaza Strip to avoid attack. Nofal said he is being progressive in ensuring that his key does not become a souvenir like his grandparents’.

He said, “If my house key becomes just a memory as I move on, I don’t want to live anymore.” “I must return to my home… I want to stay in Gaza and settle in our home in Gaza with my children.”

Israel has said Palestinians will eventually be allowed to return to their homes in Gaza, but it’s not sunny yet. Many houses were destroyed or badly damaged.

Israeli attack in Gaza, Due to Hamas’ attack on southern Israel on October 7, approximately 1.9 million Palestinians, out of the pre-war population of 2.3 million, have been driven from their homes. Most of them were uprooted several times thereafter, migrating repeatedly around the border of the strip to escape a series of attacks on the grasslands.

Each era has intended an exciting journey to a new place and crowded temporary shelters – whether in longhouses, UN schools, or tent camps. At the same time, families have struggled to live together and accumulate few assets. In each new web page, they must find entirely new resources of food, water, and scientific treatment.

Within the original migration, the population was migrating Japanese district of the southern city of Khan Yunis And parts of Gaza city in the north Then Israel ordered an evacuation there. Almost all of Gaza’s population is now packed into an Israeli-declared “humanitarian safe zone” covering about 60 square kilometers (23 sq mi) on the Mediterranean coast, aimed at a barren rural area called Muwasi.

Despite its identity, Israel has Carried out terrifying air strikes inside the “safe zone”. The statues lie dirty in vast camps of ramshackle tents built by displaced persons – mostly plastic sheets and blankets propped up on sticks. Without sanitation techniques, families live No hidden ponds of sewage later and have modest access to potable water or humanitarian assistance.

Nofal, a 53-year-old Palestinian Authority employee, said he, his wife and six children fled their home in the northern refugee camp of Jabaliya in October. First they were in the central city of Deir al-Balah, then in Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city. He had to flee again when Israel launched an offensive there in May and moved to Khan Yunis. At great speed, they fled from Khan Yunis to a tent of Muwasi.

“Being displaced to a new place, it is difficult to deal with insects and living on sandy land,” he said. “We get sick because it’s hot during the day and a little cold at night.”

However, leaving his home in Jabaliya, for the first time, was the hardest, he said. He held his key chain with the keys to his home and his grandparents’ home in what was once the Palestinian village of Hulayqat, now just outside Gaza. Nothing except Huilaqat – The Israeli army’s predecessor occupied the village and villages within reach in early 1948, expelling the population.

Such timeless keys are prized possessions Descendants of Palestinians who have been expelled or fled Throughout the war that surrounded the formation of Israel. Many people in Gaza are concerned that, during the war, they will no longer be allowed to return to their homes other than this one.

Ola Nasser also has the keys to his home in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya. For him, they are characterized by “security, stability, freedom”. It’s like my identity.”

Her people had moved into the house with the newly renovated kitchen when the Gaza war began. It is now badly burnt, along with the clothes and decorations he had to leave behind after they fled in October. He remembers a precious object made of plates that was once gifted to him by his brother and was completely broken during an air raid.

She, her husband, and their three children were displaced seven times during the war, moving from one city to another. From Rafah, they came to their flow shelter – a tent in Muwasi.

“Every displacement we experienced was difficult because it takes time to deal with. And by the time we settle, we’ll have to move forward again,” she said. Finding food was increasingly difficult due to skyrocketing prices. “There were days when we ate only one meal,” he said.

As they became confined to their homes, many left almost the entire thing behind, meeting only a few necessities. Noor Mahdi said she only took the keys to her area, the document for her apartment to obtain ownership, and a photo book of her seven children. The nearest booklet was ruined by hail, so he said he used it to light a fire for cooking.

“It was very difficult because it was very important to me because it contained memories of my children,” she said.

When Omar Fayed was 10 years old, he kept a photograph of his daughter and himself. But then some of the attacks – “everywhere worse than the other” – make him wish he had never left his home. “It would have been better for me if I had stayed in my house there and died,” said the 57-year-old man, longing for his home in Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza.

Hamas militants who attacked southern Israel on October 7 killed about 1,200 people and took 250 others hostage. More than 38,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s response, according to the Gaza State Ministry does not discriminate Between its dependent citizens and the warring parties.

Muhammad al-Ashkar, also of Beit Lahiya, said he has been displaced six times, along with his four daughters, four sons and grandchildren.

People were separated along the way. Al-Ashkar’s brother stayed in the north because his wife was pregnant and was no longer in perfect health. Soon after, shrapnel from an air strike hit him in the head and he died, although the child was saved.

One of Al-Ashkar’s sons was in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, staying at his wife’s house. The son had been cooking in the kitchen for a week when an airstrike hit the house, killing his wife and his four children in the living room. The son’s leg was once amputated, and his two surviving children now live with al-Ashkar. Another son was killed in an independent conflict in Nusirat.

Apart from all this, it is not a property that the 63-year-old misses.

“There’s nothing to cry about after leaving everything behind and seeing all these dead people and all this suffering.”

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Khaled reported from Cairo. Wafa Shurafa, corresponding press correspondent in Muwasi, Gaza Strip, contributed to this document.

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