GAZA, October 12, 2025 (WAFA) – Thousands of displaced Palestinians continue returning to Gaza City and surrounding areas, walking through streets lined with rubble and destruction left behind by two years of Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip.

Large crowds of returnees were seen making their way on foot along major roads such as al-Rashid Street, which runs along the coast from the north to the south of the Strip, and Salah al-Din Street, spanning at least seven kilometers. Many have returned to find their homes destroyed or uninhabitable.

Al-Rashid Street, in particular, witnessed dozens of massacres during the war, as Israeli forces targeted civilians attempting to flee from the north to the south of Gaza in search of safety.

Since October 2023, Israel has carried out acts of genocide in the Gaza Strip, resulting in the killing of more than 67,000 Palestinians and the injury of approximately 170,000 others, the vast majority of them women and children. The humanitarian catastrophe has also triggered a famine that has claimed the lives of 460 people, including 154 children.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) confirmed that 1.9 million people in Gaza—over 80% of the population—have been forcibly displaced since the start of the war. Many were forced to flee multiple times due to continued bombardments and military operations.

The UN has reported that more than 1.2 million people were displaced from Gaza City alone since mid-March 2025, as a result of intensified Israeli assaults.

On August 11, Israeli forces launched a large-scale offensive targeting neighborhoods in Gaza City. The assault included the use of explosive-laden robots to demolish homes, heavy artillery shelling, indiscriminate gunfire, and mass forced displacement. The attack was part of what observers describe as an Israeli plan to reoccupy remaining areas of the Gaza Strip.

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), as of July 20, 2025, approximately 88% of Gaza’s territory—covering about 360 square kilometers and home to around 2.3 million Palestinians—was under Israeli evacuation orders, effectively amounting to forced displacement of nearly the entire population.

M.N