For the past 13 months, Ahmed Jarad has been living with the dim hope that he might one day return to his home in Beit Lahiya, a village in the north of the Gaza Strip.But on Wednesday, as former US President Donald Trump declared his triumphant return to the White House following a close race against Vice President Kamala Harris, Jarad said his dream of returning to his hometown, currently being pounded by Israel and its stranded population sealed off from the south, has been crushed.
The 43-year-old left his home exactly a year ago – in November 2023 – fleeing to al-Mawasi, west of Khan Younis in southern Gaza. One month earlier, Israel launched its war on Gaza after Hamas, the political and military group that rules the Strip, led an assault on army outposts and villages in southern Israel, leaving 1,139 people dead and taking more than 250 captive.
Since then, Israel has subjected Gaza to near-relentless bombardments and ground invasions. More than 43,000 Palestinians have been killed – with thousands more missing and presumed dead under the rubble – while nearly all of the enclave’s 2.3 million population has been displaced.
Israeli officials maintain that the war is necessary to eliminate Hamas, which has been categorised as a “terrorist group” by most Western countries. But Palestinians, the United Nations and human rights defenders point to the fact that most of the victims of the war are women and ch …
