The Long Walk Home: Two Hours In, Two to Go, for Displaced Gazans

"I've been walking for two hours now"

Hanin Hamaduna a resilient Gazan journalist and a mother of a 14-year-old boy, embarks on an emotional journey that is as much about hope as it is about heartbreak. Today she is walking home – to whatever remains of it - in North Gaza .  After enduring a devastating 15-month war, she walks with uncertainty, not knowing the fate of her home or the extent of its destruction.

Hanin began her journey at 6:30 a.m., joining thousands of displaced people returning to the northern part of the Strip, carrying the weight of war on their back. Since 7 October 2023, Hanin, has been displaced more than 10 times. Her voice, weary yet defiant, carries the echoes of thousands of others as she walks:

“We started from Rashid Street, walking about 7 kilometers. The road is filled with tired faces, but they are smiling." She adds, "People are happy, they can't believe they are going back. Even if our homes are gone, the most important thing is returning to our homeland.”

Before the war, Hanin called the Nasr neighborhood in central Gaza City her home. But on 14 October 2023, her world changed forever. Forced to flee with her family, she recalls that day with a heavy heart:

“It was a heartbreaking scene—walking in crowds, not knowing where we were going or what lay ahead.”

Like Hanin, 90 per cent of Gaza’s population was uprooted, according to OCHA, leaving behind their homes and lives for an uncertain future.

The war did not spare her. Hanin endured two attacks during her displacement, escaping with nothing but her life.

The first attack occurred as she was making her way from the south to the north; the Israeli army bombed a bus while she and others were walking. The second happened while she was working at Al-Shuhada Al-Aqsa Hospital, where an airstrike targeted a journalists' tent.

“When I left Gaza, I left behind everything—my home, my work, my entire world,” she says.

Today, Hanin returns to what remains of the Nasr neighborhood, now reduced to rubble. She is one of 650,000 displaced people making this journey, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health. Since the war began, over 1.93 million people - out of Gaza’s 2.3 million population—have been displaced, each carrying their own story of loss and resilience.

Hanin is more than just one of the displaced - she embodies the story of thousands of women living under the crushing weight of war. According to UN Women statistics from 2024, nearly 1 million women and girls have been displaced. Hanin’s journey is one of many, each marked by grief and resilience.

Yet, even in the face of such devastation, the displaced carry a fragile glimmer of hope. Hanin reflects, “The houses may be gone, but the streets, the land, and the memories remain. It’s important for us to return - to start over.”

Since the beginning of the return on 27 January 2025, around 650,000 citizens have started their journey back to the northern part of the Strip. Hope and sorrow walk hand in hand. Between the rubble of homes and the heavy steps on the road back, the resilience of the human spirit persists.

Hanin checks the time, “two more hours to go,” her voice weary but filled with determination. Two more hours of walking. Two more hours to find out what remains of the life she once knew.

“Hopefully, we’ll make it.”