“Another Nakba”: A UN expert says that Gaza’s recovery will take generations | News of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Palestinians returning to devastated northern Gaza face “profound trauma,” says the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to housing.

UN expert says Israel must allow tents and caravans to be immediately delivered to Gaza Strip as displaced people The return of the Palestinians to the north From the bombed lands they found their homes and neighborhoods destroyed.

Balakrishnan Rajagopal, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, said people are finding nothing but rubble in areas from which Israeli forces have withdrawn in northern Gaza.

“The psychological effects and trauma are profound, and that’s what we’re seeing now People are coming back “To northern Gaza,” he told Al Jazeera in an interview on Saturday.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians returned to the northern Gaza Strip after Israeli forces withdrew on Friday as part of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas to stop the two-year-old conflict.

Palestinians across the coastal enclave welcomed the suspension of Israeli bombing, which has killed more than 67,700 people since October 2023 and plunged Gaza into a humanitarian crisis.

The United Nations estimates that 92% of all residential buildings in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed since the start of the war, and that hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians have been forced to live in tents and other temporary shelters.

Rajagopal noted that tents and caravans were scheduled to be delivered to Gaza during the ceasefire early this year, but almost none were allowed in due to Israel’s strict blockade.

The UN expert told Al Jazeera: “This to me is really the crux of the issue now. Even immediate relief and aid for the people of Gaza is not possible unless Israel stops controlling all entry points. This is essential.”

Rajagopal, who used the term “home killing” to describe the destruction of homes across the Strip, said that the destruction of housing in Gaza was a key element in the process of destroying homes in Gaza. The genocide practiced by Israel against the Palestinians.

“Destroying homes, evacuating the area and making it uninhabitable is one of the main ways in which acts of genocide were committed,” he added, adding that the recovery process It will eventually take generations.

“It’s like another Nakba,” he said, referring to the ethnic cleansing that Palestine suffered when Israel was created in 1948. “What happened in the last two years will be something similar.”