By Anjali Sharma
UNITED NATIONS – UNICEF reported on Thursday that 500,000 people returning into Gaza City in the wake of the temporary ceasefire across the Gaza Strip, in a press release issued in New York
Tess Ingram, Communications Manager for UNICEF Middle East and North Africa, is in the north Gaza where she witnessed people moving through the streets on donkeys, in cars, or by bicycle.
“There is a lot of people with shovels trying to remove rubble, and of course you can see people setting up makeshift shelters or tents on what I’m guessing used to be their homes,” she said.
Ms. Ingram believes that many people there were filled with hope and joy as they were finally able to come back to the place they had hoped to return to for over 15 months.
“But now, as I speak to people, I think that joy is being replaced somewhat by a sense of heaviness as they discover the reality of what has happened here in Gaza City,” she said.
“They were hoping to return to a home that is not there, or to a loved one who has been killed, and I think that that heaviness is really sinking in for people.”
UNICEF is supporting returning families with the basics that they need to survive.
The agency is providing in nutrition supplies, medical supplies, fuel to run bakeries and hospitals, and water pumps so that people have access to clean water.
UNICEF and other UN agencies brought in 16 trucks of fuel that will be provided to water wells, hospitals and bakeries to get essential services back up and running again.
They are also providing services for mental health and psychosocial support for children to help them deal with the trauma they have experienced over the past 15 months. Nutritional screening and immunization services are forthcoming.
Hundreds of children have been separated from their families while making the journey to the north, and UNICEF is responding to the situation.
The staff have been providing children under the age of four with identification bracelets that have their names, their families’ names and phone numbers, on them.
“So, if in the worst case they did get lost in the wash of people there would be some hope of reconnecting them soon with their loved ones,” Ms. Ingram said.
Humanitarians report that more displaced families are returning to northern Gaza as the ceasefire continues to hold.
Over 462,000 people have crossed from the south since the opening of the Salah ad Din and Al Rashid roads on Monday.
UN and partners are providing water, high-energy biscuits and medical care along the two routes, while the WFP plans to set up more distribution points in the north this week.
Displaced Palestinians are moving from north to south, though in smaller numbers, with about 1,400 people making the journey as of Thursday.
The agency said that across Gaza, extensive efforts are underway to restore critical services, including civilian infrastructure, which the UN and partners are supporting.
Humanitarian partners are coordinating with the Gaza Electricity Distribution Company to repair the damaged power line that feeds the South Gaza desalination plant, which is currently running on fuel.
Israeli military operations in northern areas have expanded beyond Jenin and Tulkarm to the nearby governorate of Tubas in the West Bank.
Ten people were killed on Wednesday when an Israeli air strike hit a group of Palestinians in Tammun, a village in Tubas governorate.
This brings the death toll from the ongoing Israeli operation in the northern West Bank to 30, including two children.
According to local authorities more than 3,200 families have been displaced from Jenin refugee camp in the context of Palestinian Authority and Israeli operations since December.
Humanitarian partners delivering food parcels, kitchen kits, baby supplies, hygiene items, medicines, and other essential supplies.
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