Palestinians Say Israel Is Violating Ceasefire Terms to Force Them Out of Gaza

Even though a ceasefire started just over a month ago, Israel is still working to make Gaza unlivable.

On Monday, the Gaza Government Media Office stated that only 30% of the supplies that were supposed to enter the strip in accordance with the ceasefire agreement have been let in. According to the agreement, Israel is supposed to let in 600 trucks of aid per day, including 50 trucks of fuel, and a total of 200,000 tents and 60,000 prefabricated mobile homes during the first phase of the ceasefire. The Government Media Office said that Israel has only let in 8,500 trucks out of the total 12,000 (in northern Gaza, only 2,916 instead of 6,000), less than half the intended number of tents, and only a handful of mobile homes.

The practical result of this policy is that, without the humanitarian aid stipulated in the ceasefire deal, Gaza remains uninhabitable. This has pushed some Palestinians to consider leaving Gaza until they are able to return. Hundreds of thousands have already fled to Egypt since the beginning of the war, and many more are looking to join them. Others, however, vow that they will not leave Gaza no matter what.

“There’s Nothing Voluntary About It”

In October 2023, Israel’s initial goal for the war was to push Palestinians into the Sinai under the pretext of providing a “humanitarian corridor” for the civilian population. After Egypt refused to be complicit in the plan, the genocidal nature of Israel’s war took center stage.

But even after the ceasefire came into effect, Israel sought to continue the war through other means, intentionally stalling the delivery of humanitarian aid — in violation of the ceasefire’s terms — in order to keep living conditions in Gaza unbearable. The objective of this strategy is clear: to push Palestinians to abandon their homeland or die. The commonly applied euphemism for this process is “voluntary emigration.”

This is what led Hamas to suspend its intended release of Israeli captives last week, citing Israel’s systematic violations of the humanitarian protocols of the ceasefire. After receiving assurances from mediators that Israel would start letting in tents, mobile homes, and heavy machinery for the removal of rubble, Hamas proceeded to release the captives as planned. Since then, however, the amount of aid Israel has allowed to enter has not seen a substantial increase.

Ihab Salama, 63, a father of three, recently returned to his home in Gaza City with his family. The Israeli army had destroyed his house, so he rented a new place in the city to stay. During the last several months, he has been trying to get out of Gaza temporarily but could not due to the closure of the Rafah crossing with Egypt since May 2024.

“I want to leave, but there’s nothing voluntary about it,” Salama told Mondoweiss. “Israel is forcing us to leave. Its army destroyed everything. There are no schools for my kids, no hospitals, we struggle every day to get water. There’s no electricity. But most of all, we don’t know when our homes will be rebuilt. Who wants his family to live and suffer in such conditions?”

Salama explains that he desires to catch a respite from 15 months of war until such a time that Gaza’s fate becomes clear and he has a viable homeland to return to. “I’ve been to most countries of the world. I could’ve stayed there in the past, but I preferred to go back to my home. I refused to immigrate every time. But now, if I can, I may leave.”

Salama clarifies that the current circumstances aren’t the only factors pulling him in this direction; most of Salama’s extended family has already left Gaza for different parts of the world. “I do not feel safe. Our lives are on the edge, and most of my friends and relatives who could leave have left. They will come back someday, as they say, but they could not handle the situation.”

But not everyone in Gaza is willing to leave; some never have, vowing to stay under any conditions. Hundreds of thousands made a historic return march in late January to northern Gaza, returning to the rubble of their destroyed homes and setting up tents nearby.

Muhammad Sultan, 26, has settled in al-Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip in a tent with his six family members, who preferred to stay next to their destroyed home until they could rebuild it.

“This is not the first time Israel talks about forcing us to leave our homeland, and it will not be the last,” Sultan told Mondoweiss. “From the very first moment they established their state, they have wished for us to be cast into the sea.”

Sultan explains that supporters of Trump’s proposed plan for Palestinians to leave Gaza and resettle elsewhere do not understand what home means. “It’s not a place we can change or leave. It’s our roots, our family, our memories. It’s everything we know.”

“We know our enemy,” Sultan continued. “We know its intention. Israel has been trying to push us to leave forever.”

“I Have No Place But Gaza”

During the war, almost 100,000 people fled Gaza into Egypt. Most of them remain stranded there to this day, unable to return. Currently, the Rafah crossing has only reopened in one direction. Only patients are allowed to leave Gaza for treatment in Egypt and other countries.

Islam Abed Rabbo fled from Khan Younis to Cairo with his two daughters last April after his wife was killed in an Israeli airstrike in the city. He was able to rescue his two daughters, Amira, 13, and Lana, 6, but he lives in constant longing for Gaza.

“I have no place but Gaza,” Abed Rabbo told Mondoweiss. “It is where I belong. I do not want to live anywhere else.”

Abed Rabbo says he does not enjoy complete freedom in Cairo, unable to work or obtain residency, but admits that Egypt “treats us with great hospitality.”

“We are guests in Cairo. Egyptians love and support us, but we are not in our country and always feel like guests,” Abed Rabbo clarified. “We must return to our homeland.”

Abed Rabbo and his family eagerly await the reopening of the Rafah crossing so they can return to Gaza. For him, return is inevitable.

Others who fled to Egypt during the war do not intend to return until Gaza’s circumstances improve. The majority of Gazans displaced during the war lost everything they owned — homes, families, and entire neighborhoods.

Eman Hamid, 56, arrived in Cairo in February with her ailing husband. Her house in the Zeitoun neighborhood in Gaza City was bombed while her family was inside. Miraculously, everyone escaped with only light injuries, except for her husband, whose wounds were exacerbated by the lack of available treatment throughout the war. Although over half her family remains in Gaza, she now thinks of a way to get them out.

“We’ve been through what no one else on earth has ever experienced,” Hamid told Mondoweiss. “When there was shelling next to us, I would turn my face and close my eyes. I didn’t want to see more than what I’d already seen. I don’t want to continue living like this.”

“I want to see my children grow up and raise their families,” she continued. “Not killed and their bodies eaten by stray animals in the streets. The Israeli army has robbed us of our humanity.”

Hamid is quick to point out that she sees no long-term alternative for her and her family. But she believes that she has a right to live in peace and quiet, even if for just a temporary period of time.

“We have remained steadfast and resilient our entire lives in our homeland,” she explained. “This is our nature as an oppressed and occupied people. But I want to rest a little, to be happy with my first granddaughter, and to be able to give hope and reassurance to my children.”

She does not know where she will go next, but she feels relieved that she lives in a place where life’s necessities — water, food, and electricity — are readily available.

“I just want to know what safety feels like, even if for just a little,” she said.