Tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians, most of them women, children and the elderly, began a long march on foot to return to their homes in Gaza City and the northern Strip, in defiance of the Israeli authorities. Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram wrote online, citing the Palestinian Ma'an Agency, documenting with photos a long procession of people walking with their few possessions saved from destruction.


Most of them traveled via the Rashid coastal road back to Gaza, where Hamas and Israel are exchanging blame for stalled truce talks and rising tensions as Iran enters the picture.


The Al-Rashid coastal road connects the southern and northern Gaza Strip, and the long procession crossed the Israeli checkpoints in central Gaza without obstacles, according to Ma’an News Agency. Some displaced families in central Gaza said that they received a telephone notification from a member of the Israeli army about the possibility of the return of men over fifty, male children under the age of 14, and women of all ages to the northern Gaza Strip, although Israel denied this and authorized the return. Agence France-Presse documented the march north with many photos.

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