NNA - Thousands of displaced Palestinians began returning to Gaza City and the northern Gaza Strip on Monday via Rashid Coastal Street in the central Gaza Strip.

At 9:00 a.m., the displaced persons will be allowed to travel by vehicles to the northern Gaza Strip after being inspected, via Salah al-Din Street.

Thousands of people spent the past two nights in the open on Rashid and Salah al-Din Streets, despite the bitter cold, waiting for the occupation forces to allow them to return to their homes after forcing them to leave and flee to the south.

Most of the displaced persons are walking the return route via Rashid Street, a distance of at least 7 kilometers.

The Rashid Coastal Street extends from the northern Gaza Strip to its southern part, and witnessed dozens of massacres committed by the occupation forces against citizens who were on their way to flee from the north to the south during the 470-day of aggression.

Between October 7, 2023 and January 19, 2025, the Israeli occupation forces launched an aggression on the Gaza Strip, which resulted in the killing and injury of more than 158 thousand people, most of whom were children and women, and left more than 14 thousand missing.

The Israeli occupation aggression resulted in the displacement of more than 85% of the citizens of the Gaza Strip, more than 1.93 million citizens out of 2.2 million, from their homes after their destruction, and about 100 thousand citizens have left the Strip since the beginning of the aggression.

About 1.6 million citizens of the Strip currently live in shelters and tents that lack the minimum requirements for human life, amidst massive and unprecedented destruction of infrastructure and citizens' property. ----WAFA

=============R.A.H.