GAZA (Palestine Foundation Information Center) The Government Media Office (GMO) said that the Palestinian people in Gaza City and North Governorates need 135,000 tents and caravans immediately and urgently as hundreds of thousands of displaced people begin to return on Monday morning.
The GMO pointed out in a statement that the destruction caused by the Israeli occupation army in the two governorates exceeded 90%, calling on the international community, international and Arab organizations, to work on opening crossings and providing essential supplies to provide shelter to the returnees.
It pointed out that more than 5,500 government employees are currently working to facilitate the return of displaced people from the southern and central governorates to Gaza City and North Governorates, from all governmental bodies, ministries, and institutions.
Hundreds of thousands of displaced people began returning to the northern Gaza Valley on Monday morning in implementation of the ceasefire agreement, amidst overwhelming joy and chants of Takbir.
In a previous statement, Salama Ma’arouf, the GMO head, said that government staff, in collaboration with various community components, worked to make this day a manifestation of national solidarity and community cohesion, truly reflecting the citizens’ support to eliminate the occupation’s dreams of forced displacement.
The GMO, in cooperation with public societies, prepared a plan to organize the process of citizens’ return, starting with providing dozens of buses and free transport on both sides, through deploying security personnel to clear the return route, remove ordnance of the occupation, and assist returning citizens. Medical points will be established along the route, and ambulances will be provided to transport the sick and elderly, culminating in the deployment of youth and community teams to distribute water and light food to the returnees.
Moreover, the government shelter and relief committees have worked from the first moment of announcing the agreement to prepare shelter center sites and level the land designated for creating camps for citizens whose homes have been destroyed. Approximately 40 camps have been prepared for this purpose, and efforts are ongoing to provide logistical and living needs for these camps, foremost among them being tents.
Ma’arouf urged the people in Gaza City and North Governorates to embrace returning citizens, especially those with destroyed homes, and to host them as much as possible, reinforcing the meanings of unity, solidarity, and cooperation that have been evident throughout months of aggression. He also called on returning citizens, if they cannot stay in their homes, to head to the nearest shelter center prepared to receive them, and urged them to bring whatever personal belongings they can, especially tents, due to delays in the arrival of the required number of tents. “We urgently need120,000 tents,” he concluded.
