Palestinians living in Cairo are waiting for a route to reopen for their return to Gaza or for their relatives to leave, after the war separated families and left people dead or missing and homes destroyed. Figures from the Palestinian Authority show that more than 100,000 Palestinians who left the Strip during the war remain outside it, having departed because they needed safety, medical treatment or to complete their studies.
Three families await a return to Gaza
The experiences of Omar al-Hassaina, Abu Mohammad al-Mashharawi and Abu Tamer Mushtaha reflect some of the suffering of families whose ordeal did not end when they left the Strip. Although the three men differ in their circumstances and the scale of their losses, they share the wait to return to a life they know will be surrounded by destruction, displacement and difficulty accessing basic services.
Omar al-Hassaina arrived in Cairo after losing his wife, four adult children and four grandchildren, including an infant who was only a few months old. According to Palestinian authorities, about 308 members of his extended family were killed in Israeli air strikes that destroyed residential buildings in Gaza City where they had gathered seeking safety, on 22 November 2023.
Last August, al-Hassaina watched from Cairo, in a video recording, the burial ceremony for 112 of his relatives after their bodies were recovered from beneath the rubble. Dozens of family members remain missing, while the survivors are divided between Egypt, Türkiye and the Gaza Strip. Among those who remained in the Strip is one of al-Hassaina's daughters with her five children, after she lost her husband.
Al-Hassaina's losses and al-Mashharawi's determination to return
In Cairo, al-Hassaina sold some goods salvaged from his business to cover his living expenses, hoping that conditions would stabilise and reconstruction would begin, allowing him to return and resume his work. Abu Mohammad al-Mashharawi, meanwhile, was in Egypt receiving medical treatment before the war broke out.
He later managed to bring two of his sons out so they could continue their studies, but his wife and the rest of his family remained in Gaza after refusing to leave despite injuries suffered by some of them. Abu Mohammad said the al-Mashharawi family had lost 55 of its members and that his wife was among the injured. Despite the destruction of his home and the suspension of his work, he remains determined to return to rejoin his wife, sons and father and share the burdens imposed by life in the Strip.
Abu Mohammad described conditions inside Gaza as mounting hardship, including destroyed infrastructure and piles of rubble accompanied by fears of contamination and the spread of rodents and disease. He added that continued bombardment made living in tents and crowded areas sheltering displaced people far from safe, even for those who had survived previous air strikes.
Abu Tamer awaits the departure of his wife and mother
Abu Tamer, from the Mushtaha family, said a wave of bombardment that he described as a “ring of fire” hit an entire neighbourhood. According to his account, the bombardment killed about 250 members of his family and in-laws in a single strike, one of the greatest losses his family suffered during the war. Abu Tamer is receiving treatment in Egypt and says he has been waiting for about a year and a half for his wife and sick mother to leave Gaza.
According to his account, his family went from a comfortable life to living in a tent and facing hardship after losing its property and sources of income. While expressing appreciation for Egypt hosting him, Abu Tamer said reuniting his family remained his most urgent demand. He hopes his wife and mother will be allowed to leave for treatment, or that he will be enabled to return to them if they cannot leave the Strip.
Abu Mohammad rejected the idea that allowing limited numbers of patients to cross was an indication that normal movement through the crossing had resumed. He said one injured member of his family had been waiting to travel for treatment for eight months, while he had registered a request to return about a year and two months ago without receiving a confirmed date.
A large-scale return is tied to the Strip's future
About 7,000 Palestinians have returned to Gaza, according to figures reported by Reuters, but a large-scale return remains dependent on facilitating movement through the crossings and clarifying the Strip's future. For many Palestinians outside it, returning means more than crossing the border; it requires conditions that allow them to resume work, study and treatment and find shelter.
About a year after the ceasefire agreement, Israeli forces still control more than 60 per cent of the Gaza Strip and carry out near-daily air strikes. Hamas, meanwhile, controls most of the areas where Palestinians live inside the Strip. Many Gazans are living in temporary shelters, amid supplies that aid agencies say are insufficient and with no immediate prospect of reconstruction beginning.
While al-Hassaina awaits a chance to resume a life in which he lost most of his family, Abu Mohammad and Abu Tamer are seeking to reach their relatives and share the burdens of survival with them.
