Clutching plastic bags of clothes, dragging suitcases in wheelbarrows, and holding their children close, Palestinian families in Gaza begin the gruelling march home for the first time since the start of Israel’s ferocious bombardment 15 months ago.
They walked day and night along two roads – one coastal, one central – that connect the north and south of the besieged strip, and which had been severed by Israeli soldiers for more than a year, but opened as part of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire. The roads have been so heavily chewed up by Israeli bulldozers and tanks that, at points, it is an assault course: families have to scramble up towering sandbanks or file along bridges made from rubble over pools and craters.
