By Palestine Chronicle Staff – Gaza
Despite the ongoing genocide, the horrific loss, and the untold pain, Gazans insist that they belong in their homeland and that neither Netanyahu nor anyone else is capable of breaking their spirit.
Israel had expected that the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled the ongoing genocide in various parts of the Gaza Strip would flee to Egypt.
Top Israeli officials, ministers, and even Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself, advocated for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.
To do so, Israel would have to take over the Philadelphi Route separating Rafah from Egypt.
The plan almost worked. Nearly two million Palestinians are concentrated in the south, and most of them are in large refugee encampments between Rafah and the Egyptian border.
Their situation is beyond miserable. There is little food and no medicine. And whatever water available is dirty or highly salinated water. But one single reason made it impossible for Netanyahu and his government to expel the Palestinians: the Palestinians themselves.
Israel had expected that the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled the ongoing genocide in various parts of the Gaza Strip would flee to Egypt.
The plan almost worked. Nearly two million Palestinians are concentrated in the south, and most of them are in large refugee… pic.twitter.com/5eETKJXjZ9
— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) January 21, 2024
Despite the ongoing genocide, which killed and wounded nearly 100,000 Palestinians, the starvation in parts of Gaza, especially in the north, and the mass destruction of most of Gaza, the spirit of those refugees in the south remains high.
The Palestine Chronicle went to visit one of these camps, near the Philadephi Route.
The task was to speak to some of the youth refugees. Instead, we found ourselves engaging with them in a heated beach volleyball game.
It did not matter who won and who lost. In fact, no one seemed to be keeping scores, although a young man, in a gray sweater, had volunteered to serve as the referee.
In short, despite the ongoing genocide, the horrific loss, and the untold pain, Gazans insist that they belong in their homeland and that neither Netanyahu nor anyone else is capable of breaking their spirit.
(Photos & video: Mahmoud Ajjour, The Palestine Chronicle)
