DaysofPal- A United Nations human rights expert has urged Israel to immediately allow the entry of tents and caravans into the Gaza Strip, warning that displaced Palestinians returning to the north are finding nothing but devastation where their homes once stood.
Balakrishnan Rajagopal, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, said that the destruction across northern Gaza is total, leaving tens of thousands of returnees traumatized and without shelter.
“The psychological impacts and trauma are profound, and that’s what we are seeing right now as people are returning to northern Gaza,” Rajagopal said.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians have streamed back into the north since Israeli forces withdrew on Friday under a ceasefire agreement aimed at halting the two-year war between Israel and Hamas.
Across the coastal enclave, the temporary suspension of bombardment has been met with relief, but also anguish, as residents face the reality that entire neighborhoods have vanished.
Since October 2023, Israel’s assault has killed more than 67,700 Palestinians and plunged Gaza into one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. According to the United Nations, 92 percent of all residential buildings in the territory have been damaged or destroyed, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to live in tents or makeshift shelters.
Rajagopal said that even this minimal shelter assistance has been obstructed. Tents and caravans that were supposed to be delivered during a previous ceasefire earlier this year “almost none” made it into Gaza due to Israel’s blockade.
“That is really, to me, the crux of the issue right now,” he said. “Even immediate relief and aid to the people of Gaza is not possible unless Israel stops controlling all the entry points. That is essential.”
The UN expert, who has previously described Israel’s destruction of homes in Gaza as “domicide”, the deliberate annihilation of dwellings, said the demolition of housing has been a key mechanism in what he called Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people.
“The destruction of homes and clearing people from the area and making the area uninhabitable is one of the main ways in which the act of genocide has been committed,” Rajagopal said, warning that recovery will take generations.
“It’s like another Nakba,” he added, referring to the mass expulsion and destruction of Palestinian towns and villages during Israel’s creation in 1948. “What has happened in the last two years is going to be something similar.”
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