Saja Abu Sadah and her family return home to devastated Khan Younis on the Gaza Strip – NRK Urix – Foreign news and documentaries

Saja Abu Sadah shows what is left behind in her room.

– Here I had my desk, my books, my things and my purse. Everything is burnt up.

Saja’s family could no longer live in the refugee camp in Rafah. It was deadly hot, chaotic and full of insects.

– We have come home because it was disgusting to live in a tent and in bad conditions, says Saja.

A home in ruins

When the local journalists NRK collaborate with meet Saja and her family in Khan Younis, the home is not as it was when they left him.

– All the walls have fallen down, the streets are scary, it’s dangerous to walk here, you can fall down, says Saja.

Three weeks ago, the Israeli forces withdrew from the town of Khan Younis in the south of the Gaza Strip. Before, the city was home to 200,000 Palestinians. Many fled south.

According to researchers who have mapped the destruction, only half of the city remains after the attack from Israel, writes the AP news agency.

Saja and her family are nevertheless among the many Palestinians who are now tired of living in tent camps, and are returning home. Despite war and great destruction.

– We have come home, even though there is no ceasefire yet and even though no one has asked us to come, says Saja.

Cease fire for 40 days

Armistice is closer now than before. While Saja and her family try to make their home livable again, a last attempt to reach an agreement between Israel and Hamas takes place.

A delegation from Hamas has traveled to Egypt to respond to the agreement proposal to Israel.

According to British Foreign Minister David Cameron, Israel has made an offer of a ceasefire for 40 days, in return for Hamas releasing all the hostages they took on 7 October last year. That is what the news agency Reuters writes.

If Hamas does not accept this, Israel threatens to carry out the ground invasion of Rafah.

A senior Hamas source is said to have said on Sunday that the group is positive about the agreement proposal from Israel.

Palestinians NRK has spoken to in Khan Younis are optimistic about the ceasefire and hope that a seven-month-long war is coming to an end.

Gets the water back

In the street outside the home of the Sadah family, workers are working on a water pipe.

Engineer Mohammed Abu Jame in the Palestinian waterworks ensures that the residents of Khan Younis will soon have water in the tap again.

– We repair and connect the water pipe network up to where people live. So that they can return to persevering, he says.

Three weeks after Israel finished hunting Hamas in the city, large parts of the infrastructure have been destroyed. It will take a long time to build everything up.

In a living room without walls, Saja’s father, Abu Abedallah Abu Sadah, stands and waves down to the people in the street.

– How are you, I hope you are well! he shouts and invites the neighbor to tea.