Residents return to Netsarim corridor to find properties completely destroyed after months of Israeli occupation

Gaza’s primary Salah Eddin Road witnessed heavy traffic on Sunday as Palestinians returned to areas within the Netsarim corridor, a zone carved through the center of the Gaza Strip by the Israeli military in the early months of the war.

The Israeli military completed its withdrawal from the zone a few kilometers south of Gaza City on Sunday, completing one of the terms of the ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel.

Residents who spoke to Mada Masr returned today to residential areas in central Gaza that were completely razed to the ground by the Occupation in the fifth month of the war to create a corridor to control movement between the north and south of the coastal enclave.

The corridor was further expanded over the ensuing months, crushing homes and municipal structures and ultimately serving as the rear line for Israeli forces who laid siege to north Gaza in October, expelling hundreds of thousands of residents from Jabalia, Jabalia camp, Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahia and other neighborhoods in the north east.

The three-phase ceasefire deal, which came in force on January 19, laid out terms including the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Netsarim by day 22 of the deal.

The Occupation military had already withdrawn from the western parts of the corridor on January 27, allowing Palestinians displaced to southern Gaza to return to their homes in the north.

Movement between the north and south was allowed on foot in both directions via coastal Rashid Street, while vehicles were only allowed to travel northward via Salah Eddin Road, where security checks are now conducted under Egyptian-Qatari supervision, as per the terms of the deal.

While the deal stipulated for vehicles to be allowed to move freely in both directions on Salah Eddin Road after the Israeli military’s complete withdrawal from the corridor, Gaza’s Interior Ministry said today that instructions guiding movement on both roads would remain the same until further notice.

Mada Masr witnessed the extent of the demolition and destruction of homes, roads and infrastructure by the Occupation forces in the area of the corridor and adjacent towns, including the Maghraqa, Nuseirat and Zeitoun neighborhoods and the village of Johr al-Deek.

Residents told Mada Masr that they could no longer recognize their home areas, as houses, workplaces, facilities, roads, and even trees and agricultural land had been destroyed by the Israeli military, leaving them without any means of livelihood. “Maghraqa has about 10,000 houses. None of them remain standing,” one resident said.

Movement around the strip remains dangerous for Palestinians, as Israeli forces continue to fire at them in violation of the ceasefire agreement. The Israeli military killed today, February 9, three Palestinians in Zeitoun, as well as an elderly woman east of Khan Younis, in the south.

The Gaza Health Ministry reported that its hospitals received eight bodies between Saturday and Sunday, including one person killed in violation of the ceasefire and seven others recovered from under the rubble after it took effect. The total death toll of Israel’s aggression on the strip rose to 48,189 killed and 111,640 injured, according to the ministry.