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A video clip of one of the 12 people who recently returned to the Gaza Strip has triggered wide interaction on social media, after a woman described her harsh journey through the Rafah crossing and the humiliating treatment and arbitrary procedures she faced at the hands of the Israeli occupation authorities.

In an emotional message, the woman urged Gaza’s residents not to emigrate. She described the return journey through Israeli checkpoints as being “like death”, saying that staying in Gaza — despite the destruction — is better than forced displacement. She said: “No one should leave Gaza.”

Commenting on the scene, writer Turki Al-Shalhoub said: “The people of Gaza’s attachment to their land is extraordinary.” He noted that after the Rafah crossing was reopened, Palestinians living abroad began returning to Gaza, even though large parts of the territory have become unfit for living due to the brutality of the occupation. Despite this, he said, the choice to return remained stronger than all fears.

Political writer and analyst Yassin Ezzedine also wrote: “No one should go outside Gaza,” describing the phrase as the advice of those who returned after the crossing was opened. He said this message frightens the occupation and its allies, who for years have promoted the idea that Gaza’s people want to leave. For this reason, he added, the occupation allowed only 12 Palestinians to return, out of around 80,000 waiting in Egypt.

READ: Israel reopens Gaza’s Rafah crossing ‘in pilot operation’ after nearly 2 years of closure

This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.