Comment on this storyCommentAdd to your saved storiesSave
JERUSALEM – Tariq's neighborhood in Gaza's Jabalya camp quickly turned into a war zone when he and his family of eight fled Israeli bombings in November. When he returned home on Sunday – after weeks of searching for food while fleeing artillery and firefights – he was unrecognizable.
“What was left was half a house,” he told The Washington Post on Wednesday. “Ruins we could live on.”
Tariq, who spoke on condition that he be identified only by his first name out of concerns for his safety, was among the first displaced people to retreat to their homes in Gaza this week following a partial withdrawal of Israeli troops from the north. They encountered destroyed buildings, devastated streets, piles of rubble – some containing decaying bodies that had not yet been collected – and great uncertainty about their future.
Given the gradual move away from open warfare in some parts of Gaza, the fate of the enclave and its 2.1 million residents remains far from clear. As some residents return to their devastated neighborhoods, prominent politicians in Israel are wondering whether they should go home at all.
Controversial proposals by some Israeli officials to evacuate Gaza citizens to camps in Egypt or other countries are causing conflict with Washington, Europe and the United Nations, and have been included in a lawsuit against Israel at the International Court of Justice over alleged “genocide” in Gaza. Far-right members of the ruling coalition have proposed sending displaced Palestinians to Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the European Union or Chile.
The killing of the Hamas leader in Lebanon signals a turnaround in Israel's war effort
The Post reported in December that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had called on President Biden and other U.S. officials to pressure Egypt to open its border with Gaza and accept Palestinian refugees. An Israeli media report last week said Netanyahu was in talks with the Democratic Republic of Congo about welcoming “voluntary migration” from Gaza.
Netanyahu's office and the Israeli Foreign Ministry declined to comment. The Congolese government did not respond to requests for comment.
Critics say such proposals could amount to ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian enclave.
“Forced evictions are strictly prohibited as a serious violation [international humanitarian law] “Words matter,” Josep Borrell, the European Union’s top diplomat, wrote on Wednesday
Itamar Ben Gvir: How an extremist settler became a powerful Israeli minister
“What needs to be done in the Gaza Strip is to encourage emigration,” Smotrich said in an interview with Israeli Army Radio on Sunday. “If there are 100,000 or 200,000 Arabs in Gaza and not 2 million Arabs, the whole discussion the day after will be completely different.”
Ben Gvir repeated this call on Tuesday. publication to X: “The migration of hundreds of thousands from Gaza will allow the enclave’s residents to return home and live in safety and security.” [Israel Defense Forces] Soldiers.”
U.S. officials said they were reassured that the proposals did not reflect official Israeli policy. But the State Department reprimanded Smotrich and Ben Gvir on Tuesday: “This rhetoric is inflammatory and irresponsible,” spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement. “We have stated clearly, consistently and unequivocally that Gaza is Palestinian land and will remain Palestinian land.”
Privately, Israeli officials say the proposals are based on the political imperatives of Netanyahu's coalition and his reliance on far-right parties to retain power.
Ben Gvir and Smotrich are excluded from the emergency war cabinet, which sets security policy. But her statements are well received by religious settlers and activists who would like to see Israel annex Gaza rather than hand it over to a “revived” Palestinian Authority, as U.S. officials have advocated.
Who will govern Gaza after the war? The US is looking for the best or worst options.
“The military and security professionals know that this is not even within the realm of possibility,” said a person directly familiar with the talks within the government, speaking on condition of anonymity because they did not was authorized to discuss the matter publicly. “They know that without the people of Gaza and the Palestinian Authority as part of the government, there is no future.”
But the relocation proposals and Netanyahu's refusal to refute them continue to rattle relations with the international community as opposition grows to Israel's war against Hamas, which has killed more than 22,000 people in Gaza and displaced nearly 90 percent of its residents.
“This is really Israel shooting itself in the foot,” Shira Efron, research director at the Israel Policy Forum, said of the proposals. “It would help if Netanyahu raised his voice and said that this is not politics, but that it is election season and he needs to take care of his base.”
Next week, Israel will respond to allegations made by South Africa at the International Court of Justice in The Hague that its actions in Gaza amounted to genocide or a failure to prevent genocide. Ten pages of the 84-page file are devoted to Israeli officials and soldiers who, in their own words, are calling for the forcible relocation of Palestinians and the destruction of Gaza.
Israel loudly denies the claims, which spokesman Eylon Levy called an “absurd blood libel against South Africa.”
“We have made clear in word and deed that we are targeting the October 7 monsters and finding new ways to apply international law, including the principles of proportionality, caution and distinction, in the context of a counter-terrorism battlefield something no army has ever faced before. Levy said at a briefing.
But even some international legal experts who believe Israel is abiding by martial law say the far-right's rhetoric is undermining the country's defenses.
“It's really disturbing to look at the list,” Amichai Cohen, a law professor at Israel's Ono Academic College, said of the statements compiled by South Africa. “Although I know most of these were either made by people who don’t have a seat at the decision-making table or taken out of context.”
Despite the devastation in Gaza and fears that much of it has become uninhabitable, Tariq and other Gazans heading home told The Post they would never leave.
“We would rather die and be buried under the soil of Gaza than go out and live in any other country,” Tariq said.
On the dangerous journey home, his family saw fewer tanks and the sounds of gunfire and artillery were more sporadic. But their community was in ruins.
“The roads, schools, infrastructure, everything here was completely destroyed,” Tariq said.
Reports of relative calm also led 29-year-old Moamen al-Harthani and his family back to their Jabalya neighborhood on Sunday.
His hopes for their five-story building were dashed when he reached his apartment block: it was completely demolished. “I couldn’t even remove a single piece of fabric,” he said.
As they surveyed the neighborhood, they found boxes of spent ammunition and plastic handcuffs in a home. The walls of some houses were spattered with blood, he said, and Hebrew words were carved into others.
Nevertheless, Harthani is determined to stay and push ahead with reconstruction.
“How can you believe that I will leave Gaza?” he asked. “All I ask now is that the war ends and that I can live on the rubble of my home.”
Harb reported from London and Parker from Cairo. Katharine Houreld in Nairobi contributed to this report.