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Residents of Gaza Rejoice at Returning Home, But Are Uncertain about the Future

Palestinians are seen at the Rafah crossing ahead of their return to Gaza. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Palestinians are seen at the Rafah crossing ahead of their return to Gaza. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Residents of Gaza Rejoice at Returning Home, But Are Uncertain about the Future

Palestinians are seen at the Rafah crossing ahead of their return to Gaza. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Palestinians are seen at the Rafah crossing ahead of their return to Gaza. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Residents of Gaza rejoiced at being allowed to return to their homes in the coastal enclave as a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took hold. 

Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat from the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, they said they were looking forward to the extension of the truce and return of peace. 

Many of those who fled the Israeli strikes had sought the Rafah area and Egypt’s al-Arish city. 

Ayman Hanieh, a father in his 40s had stayed in al-Arish with his relatives for around 50 days, said he was eager to return to Gaza to see his children. 

He had left the enclave before the war erupted on October 7 to seek treatment for a stroke, which left him in a wheelchair. He was planning on returning home on October 8, but the conflict derailed his plan. 

He remarked however, that he was unsure what awaits him when he returns, revealing that Israel had targeted his home. He declared though that he was determined to be reunited with his children, but will brace himself for the worst. 

He spoke to Asharq Al-Awsat about the “unknown” that awaits them, tearfully expressing his fear about the fate of his relatives. 

“Death in our nation is better than life outside of it,” Ayman added. 

“I don’t know how I'll be able to arrange affairs when I return to Gaza. I don’t even know how I will get back there or reach my children,” he stated. 

Atiyeh Abou Fadel, a man in his 30s, was waiting at the Rafah crossing to be allowed entry to return to his home in Khan Younis in southern Gaza. He had left the enclave three days before the war erupted. 

“The situation in Gaza is very difficult; everyone knows that. However, despite this, we want to return to our homes and relatives,” he told Asharq Al-Awsat. 

“Everyone is relieved with the ceasefire, but they don’t know what is in store for them,” he said. 

He hoped that everyone “could enjoy peace and calm, away from wars, strikes, killing and destruction.” 

He added that images of the victims that had emerged from Gaza continue to haunt him. “I don’t know if I will find my relatives and friends when I return,” he confided. 

Umm Ayman, a woman in his 70s, spoke with heartache about the disaster. “I want to die in my country,” she declared. 

“I’m afraid of returning to Gaza and not finding my family,” she said as she was overcome by tears. 

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'We Don't Want to Die Here': Sierra Leone Migrants Trapped in Lebanon

Sierra Leone is working to establish how many of its citizens are currently in Lebanon -AFP
Sierra Leone is working to establish how many of its citizens are currently in Lebanon -AFP
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'We Don't Want to Die Here': Sierra Leone Migrants Trapped in Lebanon

Sierra Leone is working to establish how many of its citizens are currently in Lebanon -AFP
Sierra Leone is working to establish how many of its citizens are currently in Lebanon -AFP

When an Israeli airstrike killed her employer and destroyed nearly everything she owned in southern Lebanon, it also crushed Fatima Samuella Tholley's hopes of returning home to Sierra Leone to escape the war.

With a change of clothes stuffed into a plastic bag, the 27-year-old housekeeper told AFP that she and her cousin made their way to the capital Beirut in an ambulance.

Bewildered and terrified, the pair were thrust into the chaos of the bombarded city -- unfamiliar to them apart from the airport where they had arrived months before.

"We don't know today if we will live or not, only God knows," Fatima told AFP via video call, breaking down in tears.
"I have nothing... no passport, no documents," she said.

The cousins have spent days sheltering in the cramped storage room of an empty apartment, which they said was offered to them by a man they had met on their journey.

With no access to TV news and unable to communicate in French or Arabic, they could only watch from their window as the city was pounded by strikes.

The Israeli war on Lebanon since mid-September has killed more than 1,000 people and forced hundreds of thousands more to flee their homes, amid Israeli bombards around the country.

The situation for the country's migrant workers is particularly precarious, as their legal status is often tied to their employer under the "kafala" sponsorship system governing foreign labor.

"When we came here, our madams received our passports, they seized everything until we finished our contract" said 29-year-old Mariatu Musa Tholley, who also works as a housekeeper.

"Now [the bombing] burned everything, even our madams... only we survived".

- 'They left me' -

Sierra Leone is working to establish how many of its citizens are currently in Lebanon, with the aim of providing emergency travel certificates to those without passports, Kai S. Brima from the foreign affairs ministry told AFP.

The poor west African country has a significant Lebanese community dating back over a century, which is heavily involved in business and trade.

Scores of migrants travel to Lebanon every year, with the aim of paying remittances to support families back home.

"We don't know anything, any information", Mariatu said.

"[Our neighbours] don't open the door for us because they know we are black", she wept.

"We don't want to die here".

Fatima and Mariatu said they had each earned $150 per month, working from 6:00 am until midnight seven days a week.

They said they were rarely allowed out of the house.

AFP contacted four other Sierra Leonean domestic workers by phone, all of whom recounted similar situations of helplessness in Beirut.

Patricia Antwin, 27, came to Lebanon as a housekeeper to support her family in December 2021.

She said she fled her first employer after suffering sexual harassment, leaving her passport behind.

When an airstrike hit the home of her second employer in a southern village, Patricia was left stranded.

"The people I work for, they left me, they left me and went away," she told AFP.

Patricia said a passing driver saw her crying in the street and offered to take her to Beirut.

Like Fatima and Mariatu, she has no money or formal documentation.

"I only came with two clothes in my plastic bag", she said.

- Sleeping on the streets -

Patricia initially slept on the floor of a friend's apartment, but moved to Beirut's waterfront after strikes in the area intensified.

She later found shelter at a Christian school in Jounieh, some 20 kilometres (12 miles) north of the capital.

"We are seeing people moving from one place to another", she said.

"I don't want to lose my life here," she added, explaining she had a child back in Sierra Leone.

Housekeeper Kadij Koroma said she had been sleeping on the streets for almost a week after fleeing to Beirut when she was separated from her employer.

"We don't have a place to sleep, we don't have food, we don't have water," she said, adding that she relied on passers by to provide bread or small change for sustenance.

Kadij said she wasn't sure if her employer was still alive, or if her friends who had also travelled from Sierra Leone to work in Lebanon had survived the bombardment.

"You don't know where to go," she said, "everywhere you go, bomb, everywhere you go, bomb".