Ordered to flee northern Gaza in the past 15 months, Palestinian families have spent many terrible months longing for safety and home. The much hoped for ceasefire has prompted many families to begin their journey home. But for most, more heartbreak lies ahead.
This week, hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians are making a long, difficult walk home after Israeli troops lifted their closure of northern Gaza as part of the ceasefire agreement.
Many of those making the historic journey have been repeatedly displaced in a desperate search for safety during 15 terrifying months of Israeli attacks on Gaza.
Meeting Islamic Relief aid workers handing out water and food along the route, they describe their exhaustion and grief. Everyone has experienced loss: the death toll in Gaza now exceeds 47,000, with over 15,000 children among the dead, as well as thousands of women, health workers, and aid workers.
Around 10,000 people are missing, presumed dead among the rubble of what remains of Gaza.

As they walk, there is joy in homecoming, and hope for lasting peace – but also fear of what lies at the end of their journey. Many of the returning families will find only debris where their houses and apartments once stood, their neighbours gone, their communities wiped from the map.
A staggering 92% of homes in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, as well as 94% of health facilities and 88% of schools. Islamic Relief staff are among those who have found their homes in ruins.
Islamic Relief aid worker Tarek’s return home
Our colleague Tarek was among those making the journey home this week.
“After the ceasefire and the agreement to the return of the displaced, we were able to take a deep breath. We decided as a family to return to Gaza, to our homes and streets,” says Tarek, who was displaced with his family 447 days ago, “where we bid farewell to the life of tents and shelter centres.
“[Before] nothing was available in the local markets. Even the tents were flooded with rain, and most of the time people’s clothes and bedding were soaked and they couldn’t protect their children from the cold and rain. Their lives were full of fear, sadness, loss, and blood,” recalls Tarek, who made the difficult journey home on foot with his wife and 5 children.
“We were walking among hundreds of thousands of people. Among us were children, women, older people, and people with disabilities. Walking was very, very slow due to the overcrowding. [It] took us 3 hours of walking, but we didn’t care, we only looked forward to security, safety, stability and a return home to a good life. We arrived… thank Allah, [and] met our work colleagues with longing after a separation of more than 15 months,” says Tarek, who had an emotional reunion with other Islamic Relief aid workers who he invited to accompany him as he continued homeward.
“We started walking [again] until we reached my home,” says Tarek, adding that despite the devastation he saw everywhere, he held onto hope that the apartment he longed for, “would be in good condition.”
Travelling along roads pockmarked with damage and streets lined with debris, his dread grew as he took in the full extent of the devastation inflicted on his neighbourhood.
“The area we lived in was one of the most beautiful areas and now it’s bricks and rubble. I was astonished by the horror of the scenery and the severity of the destruction. There wasn’t a single house that was not destroyed,” he says, noting that hope flared when he reached his apartment building.
“From the first look at the building from the outside, the building looked fine. There were some bricks and minor damage, but it wasn’t very clear. So I started climbing the stairs of the building, with my boys.
“Everyone was telling me, may Allah compensate you for your home… I did not pay attention to them, I kept going up the stairs until I reached the apartment and found it a mass of rubble. Honestly, the scene was so terrible.

“Of course, I had brought the key to the apartment with me – the key remained but not the apartment. I was hoping to tell my wife and children that the house is fine, and here I am coming back to bring you home. [But] I was shocked at the state of the apartment, there was nothing left.
“Alhamdulillah, our situation is like that of many other people. Allah willing, I will look for another house to rent to reunite my family and we will live, Allah willing, and create beautiful and new memories, and a better future, Allah willing.”
Islamic Relief and our local partners have been among the first organisations to support with clearing rubble from the streets after the ceasefire came into place. The enormous task, which began last week, is sombre and painstaking: bodies, as well as landmines and other unexploded ordnance, lie within the debris.
Islamic Relief has worked in Gaza for nearly 30 years
We have been on the ground in Gaza for nearly 30 years, providing a lifeline to ordinary families facing the devastating effects of occupation, blockade and recurring conflict. Over the decades, we have built a relationship of trust with the communities we serve, as well as with local partners, with whom we work wherever possible to strengthen civil society.
Our Gaza team have consistently been among the first to respond to emergencies with lifesaving aid, and this latest, horrific escalation, has been no different. Our dauntless local staff and partners have stepped forward, despite the dangers.

Islamic Relief continues providing lifesaving aid while beginning crucial recovery programme
Thanks to our generous donors, during the last 15 months of relentless atrocities Islamic Relief has been able to deliver lifesaving emergency aid to Palestinians in dire need. Our interventions have included providing hot meals and food packs, clean water, soap and hygiene items, portable toilets and cleaning, and psychosocial support for traumatised children. We have also massively scaled up our Orphan Sponsorship Programme to help care for even more children in dire need.
Our humanitarian projects continue, and now – with the ceasefire offering a much-needed glimmer of hope – we are also standing with Palestinians as they begin the huge undertaking of rebuilding their shattered lives and communities.
According to the United Nations, rebuilding Gaza will cost $50 billion and could take 350 years. Islamic Relief is beginning a programme of recovery interventions, which will include:
- providing shelter to families now without homes
- helping people to earn a living and meet their basic needs
- repairing schools and supporting children to access education again
- repairing medical facilities
- repairing facilities for people with special needs and disabilities
- orphan and child welfare and psychosocial support activities.
Islamic Relief has worked tirelessly to ease suffering in Gaza and, thanks to your support, we won’t stop. Please give generously to our Palestine Emergency Appeal to support our work now and throughout the recovery.