‘My heart is split in two’: The women waiting to return to northern Gaza

A woman hangs her laundry outside a tent at a camp for displaced Palestinians in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza Strip, on January 17, 2025. Many people have been displaced here from the north of the Strip (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Deir el-Balah, Gaza Strip – Inshirah Darabeh has just one thought on her mind as she prepares to leave the home of her in-laws near Deir el-Balah and travel to her home in Gaza City: finding the body of her daughter, Maram, and giving her a dignified burial.

“I am not going back to find my home, all I want is to find her grave and put her name on a tombstone,” she says. Inshirah, 55, will walk more than 10km (6 miles) through rubble and bomb craters to reach her home. She thinks it will take at least three hours.