Why the Palestinians will not leave their homes in Gaza.
‘This time, we stay’: the Palestinian families vowing not to leave Gaza
Defiant Gazans reject Trump’s resettlement plan after enduring 15 months of conflict
Malak A Tantesh in Gaza and
Emma Graham-Harrison in Jerusalem
Sun 9 Feb 2025 17.00 AEDT
Saaed Salem’s eyes filled with tears as he surveyed the remains of his north
Gaza neighbourhood on a freezing February morning. He was resting in a chair that had somehow survived the war, surrounded by grandchildren and rubble, his hope for the future and the ruins of his past.
His family had lost one home in 1948, when they fled Hirbiya village, now the site of Zikim kibbutz inside
Israel, to escape shelling and reports of atrocities by Israeli forces.
“We locked our house, took the key, and walked toward Gaza, believing we’d return in a few days,” said Salem, who was then five. Waiting at the end of an exhausting trek was a new reality of tents and refugee camps and permanent exile in the north of the Gaza strip.
“When the truth became clear, that we had abandoned our homes and others had taken them, we wished a thousand times that we had stayed and faced death instead. The regret never left us.” He was one of about 700,000 Palestinians forced from their homes in the “Nakba”, or catastrophe, during the 1948 war surrounding the creation of Israel.
Defiant Gazans reject Trump’s resettlement plan after enduring 15 months of conflict